They All Taste the Same
by Mistress Lynn
Summary: Draco has always wanted Hermione, but a recent change has him wanting her even more.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: In its use of intellectual property and characters belonging to JK Rowling, Warner Bros, Bloomsbury Publishing, et cetera, this work is intended to be transformative commentary on the original. No profit is being made from this work.**

**Beta Readers**: AuntLynnie, Gryffindor_Slytherin

**Chapter Notes:**

I wrote this because I started picturing Alexander Skaarsgard as Draco. And after watching True Blood, I had to get this out of my system.

**Chapter 1**

Draco Malfoy was standing on his balcony, looking out into the night with a deep sense of longing that would not go away. The wind picked up and ruffled his hair. The bare skin of his chest would have prickled if he could have physically been able to feel the cold. Staring up at the moon and stars, he took a slow, deep breath.

Lately, the arrangement hadn't been enough for him. He felt like an animal, trapped in a cage. A grim expression graced his features. He _was_ an animal in a cage. He didn't belong here anymore; he never did. The desire to escape and run free in the forest was becoming unbearable. Not only that, but Draco was sure that the Dark Lord suspected that he was more powerful than he let on.

There was no longer anybody holding him here, so what made him stay? The supply of magical blood?

He heard his house-elf and a human approach long before the knock sounded on the door. Draco sniffed the air. It was Goyle. He looked over his shoulder and sniffed again. Goyle and someone else with a scent that he didn't recognize.

Curious, his bare feet padded on the hardwood floor as he approached the double doors leading to the hall corridor.

"Enter," he said, his voice echoing off the walls.

The doors opened and his elf came through and bowed.

"Master, Gregory Goyle is here."

Draco motioned for the elf to let him in. The doors swung open wider and Goyle lumbered through carrying a small body wrapped in a white sheet. The sheet was a sharp contrast to the black Death Eater robes that Goyle wore. Draco eyed the motionless bundle.

The now unmistakably female smell became stronger as they entered the room, and to his surprise, he found that the scent was familiar. Who had been caught this time?

Draco took a few steps forward and heard Goyle's heartbeat quicken at his approach. Goyle had feared him since that fateful mission. Most of the Death Eaters were wary around him, but he didn't want to alarm anyone within the Dark Lord's ranks, least of all the Dark Lord himself, so he kept a low profile, and didn't do anything to cause anyone to question their assumptions about him.

In the meantime, Draco took on the role of the executioner. Killing prisoners suited his new nature just fine. He sneered at the memory of his aunt leaving him for dead, not realizing that he would return, changed forever. At first, his mother and father reviled him; they were sad and angered by his transformation. But ultimately, their love for him won out and they accepted him. The lives of the Malfoys had been hanging by the thread of the Dark Lord's whim for far too long.

"The Dark Lord wants to question this one personally. You need to weaken her first," Goyle explained, eyeing him.

"How."

It was a question, but Draco made it sound like a statement.

Goyle swallowed under Draco's scrutiny and continued, "Beat her, fuck her, torture her, do whatever it is that… that your kind does. It doesn't matter, she's filth."

His eyes flashed to the bundle. Suddenly, he knew that it was _her_.

Goyle released his hold so that her body would be dumped to the floor. In the blink of an eye, Draco rushed over and caught her while Goyle recoiled from his proximity.

Warmth. He felt her warmth against his torso, chest, and arms. He bent his head down, burying his nose in the sheet and inhaling with a deep shuddering breath.

It _was _her.

Goyle's mouth opened in shock after witnessing the lightning-fast reflexes, and then curled in disgust at the display of his more base nature. Draco snarled and Goyle took a half step backwards.

"Don't kill her yet," Goyle tried to admonish Draco with a tone of bored superiority, but the slight crack in his voice belied his worry.

He continued to look uneasily from the body to Draco, unsure of what to do. He didn't know whether he should oversee the torture to be sure that the Dark Lord's orders were followed, or to exit Draco's very unnerving presence.

"Leave," Draco growled.

The one word command left no room for argument, and Goyle left, utterly repulsed at what his childhood friend had become.

Draco paced back and forth in anticipation while staring at the white bundle on the floor, unsure of what to do. He paused, studied the bundle and flexed his forearms.

He _wanted _her.

It had been two years since he last saw her. He was still human then.

ooooooooooooo

_Draco was running as fast as he could, a Silencing spell cast on his feet. The Death Eaters had been betrayed. Much to their surprise, the old French castle was a trap and there wouldn't be a prisoner exchange. Somehow, the Order had found out that the captives had already been executed and the exchange was a farce. Someone intelligent must have decided to exploit the situation and make a trap of their own. Voldemort's army had never seen it coming. The trap was planned with a cunning and uncharacteristic ruthlessness, and it was executed brutally. More members of the Order had arrived to collect the surviving Death Eaters that were too injured to return._

_Draco was only alive and in one piece due to his extreme paranoia and cold, hard skill. Both were a result of knowing that he and his family were on the Dark Lord's shit list, and wondering when the axe would fall. It was only a matter of time, really. He probably wouldn't live to see his twenty-first birthday, and for what?_

_A fucking war._

_He had tried to persuade his father that they should abandon everything and flee, but to no avail. His father was a coward._

_He doubled over from the exertion of sprinting up and down corridors and ducking into alcoves. The saliva in his mouth was thick and he bent his head to spit on the ground. Wiping his mouth of spittle, he cursed his rotten luck in a harsh whisper. His Portkey had fallen from his pocket while he had narrowly escaped the first explosion. He was sure it was near the south entrance. At the time, he was too busy dueling to notice, and now he had to make his way back. Maybe it would be better to hide and wait until the Order had finished combing through the castle grounds. Better yet, if he could get outside the range of the anti-Apparition ward, he could be back at the Dark Lord's lair within seconds. The question was… how?_

_He thought he heard something and abruptly stopped breathing. After casting a spell to enhance his hearing, he strained his ears and heard hushed voices approaching from the end of the hallway. Panicked, he looked back and forth, but found no place to hide. The distance to the exit of the corridor was too far off; he'd never make it in time. In a last ditch effort to hide himself, he plastered his body against the stone wall and cast a Disillusionment Charm, hoping that if he stayed still enough, whoever it was wouldn't notice the telltale shimmer of the spell in the dark of night. He did his best to control his breathing, but it was hard._

_A deep male voice from down the corridor was amplified for him to hear._

_"What do you think it is? That dragon on the emblem looks to be made of gold."_

_Longbottom. The sod had his Portkey. Maybe his luck was improving._

_"I'm not sure, Neville. It doesn't appear to be dangerous, but it's been charmed with… something. Here, levitate it into this pouch. Don't touch it."_

_His pulse quickened at the sound of the female voice. A voice now familiar from his frequent reminiscing of their moments together._

_He closed his eyes and exhaled. Of course it would be her._

_Thinking of her was distracting; he was unable to temper the sad longing that accompanied his memories of her, but he couldn't afford to make any mistakes. How could he get his Portkey back? And how could he do it without hurting her? If they passed by him without noticing how he was hidden (not impossible, but highly improbable if they were searching for stray Death Eaters) he could incapacitate both of them from behind._

_Hopefully._

_Seeing as how he didn't have any other bright ideas, he focused on the one he had. He'd have to stun Hermione first. She would be the better duelist by far. He saw them approach by crisscrossing across the hall and running in bursts. They were both dressed in black, and her hair was tied back. Their movements seemed graceful and effortless. They must have practiced the movements so often for it to resemble a dance. One would be against the wall, wand ready, while the other made a diagonal mad dash towards the opposing wall._

_He watched them progress down the corridor, and mapped out approximately where they would be to see if he should attempt moving. It seemed like they would pass him unnoticed when Longbottom suddenly tripped._

_Draco rolled his eyes impatiently and found that Hermione was hilariously rolling hers as well, as she hurried to help him up. However, his amusement was short-lived as he realized that the fall had ruined their pattern and she was now sprinting directly towards him._

_Adrenaline rushed through his body and he held his wand in attack position. What would she do if she noticed him? She was truly terrifying in battle. He had seen it._

_She pumped her arms as she ran, and kept glancing back over her shoulder to ensure that they weren't going to be attacked from behind. She turned to face his spot on the wall, furrowed her brow and skidded to a halt five feet from him._

_Her hazel eyes were studying the disturbance against the wall with trepidation. It was hard to see in the dark, but she was facing him directly now. Her eyes narrowed and he watched the rise and fall of her breasts as she caught her breath._

_It would be point blank. He should stun her now. He should, but he couldn't. Not her._

_His head bowed in resignation._

_Fuck._

_"What's wrong?" Longbottom asked warily._

_Hermione waved for him to be quiet and slowly approached Draco. She was just as painfully beautiful as he remembered her, but hardened around the edges - they all were. Somehow, her hardness only seemed to amplify her beauty._

_By now she would have realized what she was looking at, and her eyes searched the area where she estimated that his eyes would be. Knowing that she was in the presence of a Disillusionment Charm, she would now be wondering why whoever had cast the spell hadn't assaulted her already. Fortunately for Draco, this meant that she wouldn't attack him too hastily._

_"What is it?" Longbottom asked again, and made to approach her._

_"Stay back!" she hissed, not taking her wand or her eyes off of the wall where Draco was. "Keep watch of the corridor exits!"_

_Her eyes widened as she muttered the counter spell. She glanced down to the tip of his wand, which was almost touching the tip of hers, and then up to him._

_"Malf-" Longbottom started, but Hermione hushed him, and he stood still and at attention._

_How high up was she ranked now?_

_Draco raised an eyebrow and stared down at her over their wands. "You planned this, didn't you?"_

_He couldn't keep the admiration out of his voice. The corner of her mouth twitched into a half smile, and then disappeared as regret entered her eyes. She couldn't take pride in something that resulted in the death and injury of so many people, enemy or not._

_In a soft whisper that only he could hear, she told him simply, "Come with us."_

_He swallowed. He would follow her anywhere._

_"They'll be killed," he answered, just as quietly._

_She nodded. She knew._

_They lowered their wands, relaxed their stance, and she closed the gap between them._

_Searching his face, she continued, "It's a standing offer. When you're ready."_

_He studied the sadness of her hazel eyes, reflecting the despair in his own. He wanted them to be somewhere else, but it was never their time… not in this life._

_He gave her a sardonic smile. "I doubt I'll live that long."_

_His chest ached. He longed to touch her, and he eyed Longbottom, who was making his way towards them, wand at the ready. The situation was clearly making the shit-for-brains uneasy._

_"Hermione, what's going on?"_

_Ignoring Longbottom, he motioned to the pouch tied to her belt. "You've got my Portkey."_

_Wordlessly, she took the decorated parchmentweight out of the pouch and handed it to him. Her fingers lingered, touching his in the faintest of caresses. Longbottom began to sputter a protest, and Hermione's hand dropped. Draco's hand remained, holding the Portkey and still tingling from where she had touched him._

_Looking down at the parchmentweight in his palm, he exhaled slowly and curled his fingers around it._

_Longbottom, clueless as always, was sputtering, "Have…Have you gone barmy?"_

_Hermione set her mouth in a determined line, nodded as if she were debating and then agreeing with herself, and then turned around._

_"Obliviate!"_

_She turned back to Draco, and he could see the faintest of tears in her eyes._

_"Hurry," she urged him._

_"Hermione, I…"_

_Adrenaline surged through him. He didn't know when he'd see her again, if ever. Feeling reckless, he circled her upper arm with his fingers, pulled her close to him and cupped her face. Staring into her eyes, he slowly rubbed the softness of her bottom lip with his thumb. Her breath hitched and her gaze flicked from his eyes down to his mouth and back. He could take her now, they could leave, they could run away from all of this… He leaned down to kiss her, but she gently pushed him away, biting her lip and shaking her head._

_She looked up at him and a lone tear spilled over her lashes and made its way down her cheek._

_"Hurry," she implored again, her voice barely a whisper._

_Never taking his eyes off of hers, he tapped the Portkey with his wand, and vanished._

ooooooo

With a great deal of excitement, Draco uncovered her body with a swish of the sheet. He was quite unprepared for the onslaught of hunger and desire that overtook him. Her scent, ten times stronger now, assaulted his senses and she was _naked_. She was lying on her back with her left leg over her right, covering her privates. For a split second, he felt a paralysis. The object of his desire for so many years was laid out before him. Hair, lips, eyelashes, stomach, smooth skin, breasts, legs, throat, and the stream of her sweet, sweet blood.

As the saliva pooled in his mouth, he felt his fangs extend and he became painfully hard. With a grunt, as if he was forcefully pulled down, he fell to his hands and knees, crouching over her like the predator he was.

He was aroused, and hungry, ready to take and violate her body in every way imaginable. He heard her blood pumping just under her skin. Placing a hand on the back of her knee and encircling her leg with his fingers, he closed in on her throat. As he approached the pumping of her artery under the skin, he felt the tendons and muscles of her leg and gave it a slow squeeze. He cupped the back of her head with his other hand and threaded his fingers through her hair, reveling in its softness.

A low growl left his chest and he slid his hand up her leg to dig his fingers into the suppleness of her rear. He lifted and tilted her head in such a way that her throat was entirely exposed to him, and rubbed his thumb over the skin of her neck. He felt the pulse of her rushing blood and the stream got louder, calling to him, until all that he could hear was the rhythmic pumping of her heart thudding his his ears. He leaned down and licked the length of her throat, savoring the taste, and readied to sink his teeth in.

He'd fuck her into the ground and drain her until there was nothing left. He would ravage her and bathe in her blood. It would be glorious. Hermione would…

Hermione.

He paused and closed his eyes to block the image of her tempting body laid bare before him. Gently, he laid her down so that her warm softness wouldn't arouse his lust. He turned his head towards the patio doors, trying to clear his nose of her scent with the fresh night air coming in from the balcony. He tried to listen to the wind, to the animals outside, to the curtains fluttering, to anything that would distract him from the beating of her heart and the flow of her blood. It was difficult, struggling with and finally controlling his predatory nature. Not without considerable effort, he sat up on his haunches and slowly backed away from her.

He needed to get outside and feed on something else, so that he could clear his mind enough to think through his options. In a flash, he was gone.

oooooooooooooo

When Hermione woke up, the first thing she realized was that she was lying on the floor. More specifically, she was lying on a rug. The second thing she realized was that she was naked. Fighting the urge to cover herself, she feigned sleep while furiously trying to remember how she had gotten here in the first place… wherever "here" was. From the way the air flowed around her and the slight coolness she felt towards her feet, she guessed she was in a large room, and that there was an open window near where her feet pointed. She wondered if she was on the ground floor. Her hands itched to reach around her to see if her wand might be nearby, but she knew that it was hopeless, wishful thinking.

She tried to concentrate on remembering. How much time had passed? What time of day had she last been conscious? It must have been noon because her last memory was of a blinding light. It must have been very bright outside. But that couldn't be right, she and Ron were trying to help Harry escape the Forbidden Forest with the fifth Horcrux. There was hardly any direct sunlight there.

Suddenly, it came back to her. Padma was there, injured. Hermione split up with Ron so that he could watch Harry's back while she got Padma out. She didn't understand why Padma was there in the first place, and that fact alone should have set off warning bells, the three were to have back-up if needed, but they had not signaled for anyone to come. Furthermore, Padma was not one of those assigned to be back-up for the mission in the first place. She hadn't been quite right since Parvati's death, and was generally given a wide berth with little responsibility.

Upon being asked, Padma had successfully given her personal password, thus confirming her identity. Hermione ignored the sense of wrongness she felt about the situation and went right on to assessing her friend's injuries. It had seemed that the most serious of them was on her upper right thigh, causing a lot of blood loss.

_"Sorry," Padma said in a barely audible whisper._

_"What?" Hermione asked, as she concentrated on closing the lacerations. When she looked up, she saw a bright light emitted from the end of Padma's wand._

And now she was here.

Padma must have thought she could buy a safe passage to the other side. That was disappointing; it was a terrible loss. She had been with them from the beginning. Intelligent, brave and loyal, Padma was a true soldier and friend. Hermione hoped that it was temporary insanity brought on by Parvati's death, and not a lack of faith in their cause or change in her true allegiance.

Or maybe she was giving her too much credit and the bint just wanted revenge. With the way she had been acting, it was impossible to tell...

It had been a frustrating year all-around, and many in the Order despaired of ever winning. They watched their numbers slowly decrease without any apparent progress in what appeared to be an incredibly damaging war of attrition. But a recent lead had led Hermione, Ron and Harry back on the trail. She was certain that they had destroyed the fifth by now without her, and they had a fairly good idea of where the sixth was.

Nobody but the three of them knew about the Horcruxes, and fortunately, they weren't physically able to talk about it. The Unbreakable Vow had been her idea, and all three agreed that it would be for the best. The control over her own fate gave Hermione more courage to face whatever torture was planned for her to extract names, locations and strategies. She could commit suicide by attempting to tell precisely what it was that her captors would want to know. It put her in control of what otherwise would be a truly horrifying experience that most likely would end in her death anyway.

She wondered if she could chance a peek at her surroundings without alerting anyone to the fact that she was awake. She didn't sense anybody in the room, and the only sound she could hear was the occasional ruffle of a curtain. From the sound of it, the window must be fairly large. Or maybe the ceiling of the room was high. She guessed that she was roughly twenty feet away.

Since the right side of her face was pressed against the sheet, she chanced opening her right eye a crack. Her nose and hair would hide any movement that she made involuntarily so that she could retain her guise of unconsciousness. Her eye was only opened slightly and so everything in her line of sight was blurry. She could make out that she was in a very opulent sitting room of sorts. There were a few tables and chairs, and a sofa almost directly across from her.

She almost flinched. Almost.

She saw the bottom half of someone, obviously male, sitting on the couch. He appeared to be wearing only black trousers. No shirt, no shoes. He was well built, and tall. From her angle on the floor, she couldn't see his face. She hadn't felt as nervous when she thought that she might be alone in the room, but now there was an unknown man not ten feet away from her, staring at her nakedness. Knowing that she was being watched made her feel her vulnerability that much more acutely.

Goosebumps spread over her body and her nipples hardened. She heard a low growl emanate from the area where the man was sitting on the couch. Was there an animal in here too? She didn't sense one. Then again, she hadn't sensed the presence of the man sitting on the couch, either.

She saw his legs straighten as he stood up and walked towards her. Her heartbeat quickened. He was very tall indeed. She smiled inwardly. He would fall… hard. His bare feet padded on the ground until he was almost within reach. She could bite and rip through his Achilles tendon with her teeth. He would fall and she would go immediately for his wand. If it wasn't in his hand, it would be in his trouser pocket. Roughly 90% of wizards were right handed, so she would go for the right side first. If she couldn't get his wand, she could break his collarbone and knee him in the groin while putting a choke hold on him.

If the bastard had answers about her situation, then by Merlin, she would get them.

Was she ready for this? Yes. She held her breath, and counted down. She could feel the adrenaline racing through her body and her heart thumped wildly in her chest.

Ready? And three… two…

The man's voice cut through her thoughts. "There's no use in attacking me, your movements are a hundred times slower than mine."

_What?_

Her eyes snapped open to see a bare-chested Draco Malfoy towering over her. Her heart leapt and a smile of pure happiness lit up her face. He was _alive! _

She heard the low growling again, and with a start, realized that it was coming from _him_. Seemingly entranced, he was staring down at her nakedness, raking his eyes over her.

Her smile faltered.

Something was wrong.

Furiously, she wrapped herself in the sheet, jumped to her feet and backed away from him while scanning her surroundings for exits and weapons.

Draco's eyes followed her movements, but he stood completely still. Slowly, his lips spread in a lecherous smile and to her horror, she saw that he had _fangs._

Her heart plummeted.

They were evil. He had so much potential. He didn't belong with them and they knew it.

She always felt helpless when she thought of Draco. Much as she yearned for him, much as she wanted to help him, he was stuck, surrounded by evil. How had he had done it all these years? Was it his strength of will? Or the love that he felt for those close to him? Through it all he had managed to hold onto his humanity.

And then they took it from him.

ooooooooooooo

_Hermione walked hurriedly down the corridor. It was night. She wanted to talk to Harry but couldn't find him. Out of habit from last year, and the good memories that she had from being a part of the DA, she found herself returning to the Room of Requirement, and encountered Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle walking down the corridor from precisely that direction, arguing furiously in hushed voices. They all stopped as soon as they saw her._

_She considered turning heel and striding off in the other direction, quickly. That might save her a confrontation with all three, but her retreat would only encourage them later. Not to mention that she had every right to be here as they did. She squared her shoulders, took a deep breath and continued down the hallway. She would just ignore them._

_"Well, well, well," Crabbe taunted her. "Filthy, little, Mudblood all on her own."_

_She tried to continue on her way without looking even remotely in the same direction as the three. She didn't care about Crabbe and Goyle, it was Draco that unnerved her. They had become very close that night in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, and understood each other as only two suffering people can. She was scared of what she would see in his eyes now. She wasn't afraid that it didn't mean anything to him, she knew it did. She was just afraid that he would regard her_ _in the same way that he always did, as if nothing had changed between them._

_Goyle stepped directly in front of her, blocking her path. He gave her a threatening smile._

_"You should leave, Mudblood," Draco said to her, struggling to keep his voice firm._

_Her heart sank. That hurt._

_She closed her eyes, willing the tears away, and reopened them before slowly turning to face him. He was flanked by his two oafish friends, and looked positively sick. Taken out of context, it almost sounded like he was warning her. She felt a tingle of fear race down her spine at the barely contained panic in his expression._

_He_ was_._

_The double meaning was lost on Crabbe and Goyle, who continued to tell her that she didn't belong at Hogwarts._

_"If you don't leave, we'll make you leave!" Goyle sneered._

_Draco's eyes were pleading with her in a way that his mouth couldn't, and now she saw that he was absolutely terrified. Not just for himself, but for her._

_"Leave, Mudblood," he repeated, more in control of his voice._

_Soundlessly, he mouthed the word "now."_

_Adrenaline was racing through her body, but raw fear rooted her to the spot._

_"Come on," Draco said with nervous irritation. Without taking his eyes off of her, he motioned for Crabbe and Goyle to follow him, "we've got work to do."_

_"Your days are numbered, Mudblood," Crabbe threatened with a snarl, pointing back at her as he walked on with Draco._

_She stared after them as they walked swiftly down the hall._

_Leave where? From this corridor? From Hogwarts?_

_Something was going to happen. Harry had been right all along. Whatever Draco was involved in, it had him petrified._

_And now, watching the three leave the corridor, so was she._

_Like after a gunshot at the start of a race, she took off in a sprint in the opposite direction, following a roundabout way to the Headmaster's office. After several attempts of hurriedly whispering various kinds of Muggle candy to the gargoyle in between gasps for breath, she concluded that he wasn't there. Biting her lip worriedly until it bled, she decided that Professor McGonagall would be the next best person to warn. However, she never got the opportunity. Not ten minutes after she had left that corridor leading to the Room of Requirement, Draco returned to let Bellatrix Lestrange, Fenrir Greyback, and several other Death Eaters into Hogwarts._

_She didn't realize it until later, but Draco Malfoy had saved her life._

000000000

From what she knew, vampires turned from Muggles had no sense of morality, at least, not in the sense that humans did. She didn't know a damned thing about vampires turned from wizards. Until now, she'd never even heard of a vampire turned from a wizard. What she _did _know was that vampires were dangerous. They were slaves to their hunger and desires, human only in appearance.

He was lost completely. No hope.

She choked out a sob, and her voice shook with rage, "What did they _do _to you?"

His grey eyes glittered down at her through his fringe.

"It could have been worse..." As if to prove his point, his eyes lowered to her throat and rose back to meet her eyes again. He was clenching and unclenching his hands.

She noted that there was a patio door to her left, thirty feet away. She had been off a bit. From the view of the Mumford tree outside in the moonlight, she estimated that they were three storeys high; too high to jump without breaking a leg or worse.

It was commonly thought that vampirism took away the magic in the wizard's body and blood since the change in state was, in actuality, an affliction of both, but there was no recorded evidence. She didn't see a wand on Draco, so apparently that was true. Vampires weren't much of a challenge to an armed and trained wizard with his wits about him. But to one that was unarmed…

Double doors behind her, about ten feet, but she might meet guards in a mad dash for the building exit. Draco would catch her anyway, and she had no hope of outrunning him. A hundred times faster, indeed.

She studied him, putting one hand out into the air between them so as to keep her distance, and one hand clutching the sheet to her body. The Order hadn't seen or heard of Draco Malfoy in twenty months. She thought that he had been executed. They knew that his father had died from injuries sustained in one of the battles not three months ago, and his mother passed away soon after from an illness. However, their intelligence could not confirm her suspicion regarding Draco. This, apparently, was why. The Death Eaters were shamed enough that the likes of Greyback were among their ranks. But a vampire? And one turned from the purest of bloodlines? Draco would be an embarrassment.

If Draco were still human, she would have persuaded him to help her. They had connected with each other before, deeply. She would have tried to exploit that. Now he was a vampire. How much did vampires retain of their human feelings? She just didn't know. But seeing as how she had been betrayed by Padma, stripped, and brought to _him_, she had to assume that he was with her in order to kill her, or torture her, or both.

The thought made her want to vomit.

His growling stopped and she abruptly focused on his predatory stance, and then his grey, inhuman eyes. He was pale, beautiful, and terrifying. An Angel of Death.

But she didn't have to die tonight.

Her mind raced for what she knew about vampire weaknesses. Sunlight? It was night, and she had no idea how much time she had until dawn. It was summer, so the days were longer, but sunrise could have been anywhere from a half hour to eight or nine hours. Garlic? There wasn't any food in this room, and she had no idea where the kitchen was. Silver? Surely there had to be _some_thing in this room made of silver, unless he had purged his living quarters of it. She'd have to keep her eyes open, and stall him.

Could she talk to him?

Her eyes lowered to her left. Could she make a stake out of that table leg?

He was slowly approaching her, and sniffing the air as he did so. His head tilted, following wafts of air as they traversed the space between them. Was it her _scent_that enthralled him so? He turned back to her and she was struck by the intensity in his grey eyes, hungry and lustful. She clutched her sheet more tightly to her body. A slight movement drew her gaze to his mouth. He was flicking the tip of his fang with his tongue, and watching her.

She was in trouble.

**Chapter End Notes:**

So would Draco make a good vampire or what?


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

Hermione held her arm out in front of her in an attempt to keep some space between her and Draco, much as she would a wild animal. If he got too close, he might bite her. Or something else, from the way his eyes kept straying to the tops of her breasts and her legs.

In her haste to cover herself, she had inadvertently bunched up the sheet, which barely reached her mid-thigh. She tried to readjust it so that she would be more covered, but it was difficult to do so one-handed, and the sheet opened to reveal the skin of her hip and midsection. Draco's low growl resounded again, and his eyes roamed over her exposed flesh.

This wasn't working. She'd just have to make do with the sheet as is. Clutching it tighter around her body, she wondered if she could appeal to his reason. At least until she had found a suitable weapon. What she needed to do was stay calm, and control her breathing. If she got excited, so would he. If she acted frightened, it would provoke him.

Hermione took a few deep, calming breaths and Draco watched the movement of her breasts.

"Draco? Draco," she said smoothly. His eyes met hers. She was struck by the shining, inhuman intensity that was there, a mockery of the bright passion of the man in whose body the vampire resided.

Fighting back the tears that threatened to surface, she kept the desperation out of her voice and said, "Draco, talk to me. Where am I?"

She watched his gaze linger over the skin of her neck, collar bone, and the top of her breasts before returning to her eyes. "My manor."

She tried to control her surprise. After the deaths of his parents (and as far as she had known, himself), Malfoy Manor had been abandoned. It must be very powerful magic that succeeded in disguising the fact that he still resided here. He was hiding in plain sight. No one would look for him here.

Very smart.

Keeping her voice even, she asked, "What are you going to do with me?"

She walked backwards very slowly, so as not to make any sudden movements, and kept her hand out to preserve the distance between them, futile as the gesture was.

He advanced on her, just as slowly. Eyeing her throat again, he said, "They want me to torture, fuck, and drain you."

She tried to back away into a different direction, towards a table where there were various knick-knacks; maybe one of them had a bit of silver on them, or could at least be used as a weapon. Draco side-stepped gracefully, blocking her path.

She brought her eyes up to his and tried to keep the wavering out of her voice.

"And is that what you're going to do?"

He was licking his fangs.

"How about two out of three?" he said with a smirk, and she thought she saw a bit of the human Draco. Was it possible that he was still in there, somewhere?

Her back hit the wall and she swallowed.

"So you're going to kill me?"

He reached out and grabbed her outstretched arm so quickly she didn't even see his hand move. The sudden contact with Draco made her stomach churn in nervous anticipation. Slowly, deliberately, he brought her hand up to his lips. His hot breath tickled her.

Staring at the flesh, he said distractedly, "They told me not to."

He had a way of speaking in which he detached himself from the Death Eaters giving him orders. That gave her hope. Maybe this vampire had his own agenda. If she could reason with him, or find the right angle, he might let her escape.

She tried to get her hand back, but knew it was useless. Draco had been much stronger than her in his human form; she had no chance against a vampire.

His grip tightened and he turned her hand over, exposing the underside of her wrist to his mouth. Slowly he licked, tasting her.

A jolt of electricity shot from the wet path on her wrist to her core, causing her lips to part slightly. His grey eyes flicked back up to hers, observing, and he gave a knowing half smile.

"S- so, you won't kill me," she stammered, trying to ignore the desire building within her. She didn't want to feel this way. Much as she would have loved to be this close to Draco, it wasn't really him.

She tried to make her question sound like a statement, one that he could either agree or disagree with, but he didn't seem to be paying attention to what she was saying. Her breath hitched as he dragged the point of his fang along the path still wet from his saliva. She tried to pull her hand back, but to no avail.

"I hope not," he answered with a lilt in his voice. It sounded as if she had asked him if it was going to rain.

So he planned to drink from her, but not to the point of death. At least not on purpose. She took a deep, calming breath and tried to assess the situation.

Oddly enough, it appeared that he was being completely honest with her. Or maybe this was part of his interrogation tactic. Either way, it was a strange conversation they were having. She just didn't know enough about vampire psychology in order to make a judgment.

Draco looked down at her wrist again. He appeared to be deep in thought, and his thumb lightly rubbed the skin over her vein, warming her skin underneath and exciting her.

Hoping to find a weapon, she flicked her eyes over the expanse of the room. There was a desk in the corner to her right with quite a few objects on it. Quickly, she brought her eyes back to Draco's face so that he would not see where she had been looking, and she tried to remember what she had seen.

Parchment, gold ink well, decorated quills, wax seals, letter opener. _Bingo._

Considering the riches of Malfoy Manor, if it looked like it was a precious metal, it probably was. The silver blade of the letter opener would be a perfect weapon. She needed to work her way over there and stall him.

With growing trepidation, she watched as he brought her wrist up to his mouth. Knowing what would come next, she curled her toes and did her best not to flinch. There was a sharp pain when he gently punctured the underside of her wrist with one of his fangs. Slowly, he pulled the fang out and his eyes became hooded as he watched a thin rivulet of blood run down. Groaning, Draco licked the length of her arm. She watched her red, thick blood coat his tongue as it curled back into his mouth.

His eyes rolled back, and the short moan which sounded from his chest caused an unsettling warmth to spread below her stomach. As if it would rein in her physical reaction to him, she clutched the sheet even tighter around her body.

She watched him in both horror and fascination. Hermione had never seen a vampire feed before. She knew that their hunger and sexual needs overlapped, and occasionally they fed while copulating with their victims. She wondered if this was to be her fate.

"Are you going to beat me? Torture me?"

Glowering down at her with those inhuman, silver eyes of his, he ran his tongue over his lips with obvious satisfaction and asked with a smirk, "Do you want me to?"

"No." Her voice caught in her throat.

It was disturbing her, how he was able to make impending torture and death sound sexy. This whole interrogation scenario was one that she was not prepared for, and could never have imagined. Draco's presence, even as a vampire, had her woefully off balance.

She watched him as he slowly closed in on her while licking the stream of blood from her elbow and back up to her wrist, giving small sounds of satisfaction as he did so.

"Aaah," his eyes fluttered closed as he emitted a small groan from within his chest. "You taste far better than I'd imagined."

He proceeded to lick every last drop from her wrist, hand and fingers. Without breaking the skin, he delicately grazed the pad of her thumb with his teeth, and flicked it with his tongue. She could have sworn that his eyes crinkled with a quick smile.

Was he _teasing _her? It couldn't be...

But if he wasn't going to torture her, or kill her, that left…

"Are you going to fuck me?" she whispered.

His lips spread in a feral smile. "Oh, yes."

She couldn't help it. She felt her own wetness spreading below. He was very sexual, and everything about him was making her respond to his closeness, his heat, and his lust. She rubbed her legs together.

Giving her a predatory leer, he slowly, inhaled through his nose, showing her that he could, indeed, smell that too. She shivered. As if to confirm her thoughts, he closed the small space between them, gathered a fistful of the sheet covering her bum, and pressed himself to her core.

_Merlin!_

She could feel every inch of him through his trousers.

It was so cruel. She wished they would have just killed him. This vampire in Draco's shell made the loss of his life that much more acute. Closing her eyes to stave off the tears, she told herself that this man with Draco's eyes and Draco's mouth and Draco's body wasn't really him.

He slipped his hand around her waist and dug his fingers into her over the sheet. A small whimper escaped her.

She opened her eyes again. The sight of his fangs lowering to her wrist brought her back to the present, and her heartbeat sped up. Considering that feeding from her left him severely preoccupied with his own pleasure, she wondered if she could take advantage of him while he was drinking. He might be stronger and faster than her, but he was still male.

She tensed, priming to knee him in the groin so she could dash for the letter opener. Draco splayed his hand over her back, angled his head, bit down on her wrist and sucked.

She gasped. The pain was sharp, but it was quickly overshadowed by a warm desire spreading from where he was drawing on her wrist. All thoughts of the letter opener were forgotten as she felt his mouth pull at her very being, from the tips of her toes, through her limbs, her torso and back to her wrist.

Suck… suck…

She felt herself enflaming from the inside. She was hot and her body was thrumming. The lust she felt was so intense that a guttural cry suddenly escaped from her throat.

Draco extracted his fangs from her wrist and she panted as he released her from his pull. She was left with an achingly empty feeling down below.

Hermione tried to catch her breath while Draco watched her. His eyes were heated, and surprised. Apparently, he hadn't been expecting that reaction either. Wordlessly, he again brought her wrist up to his mouth, now red with her blood.

"No! Wait!" she gasped before she could stop herself. Her panic would only spur him on.

The bloody smile he gave her was devilish. "Just one, small, sip."

"No! Nooooo!" Her protest turned into a moan as his fangs slid into her flesh, and lust again enflamed her body. The rush of ecstasy which followed was so strong that her knees buckled. She felt his arm catch her from behind and press her harder against him. The sensation built up and she again felt pleasure ripping through her with each draw on her wrist.

He shuddered with each pull from her when she keened and began to shake as her orgasm passed through.

Slowly, he removed his fangs from her wrist and pulled back. She gulped for air, eyes wide with disbelief. Draco's expression was a mix of fascination and need.

He made to bite her again but she protested, trying to do so more calmly this time.

"No," she gasped. "No," she stated more firmly.

He looked at her, observing, contemplating.

It was almost as if… How much of Draco _was _in this vampire before her? Was she deluding herself? Was she only seeing him because she wanted to?

"Please, Draco," she said evenly. "Please, wait. You're going to do whatever you want to me anyway, can we just wait a bit?"

Slowly, an amused smile spread across his face, but he didn't bite her. Again, she couldn't shake the feeling that it was really _him._

Her voice was calm. "Please, Draco."

She tried to pull her hand away, but his grip was like a vise. Slowly, he licked the puncture wounds he'd left, his tongue blazing a hot trail on the underside of her wrist. She tried again to yank her hand away. He loosened his fingers on her wrist by only a few millimeters, but it was enough for her hand to squeeze through and she pulled away from his grasp. She turned her wrist over to inspect it, and to her surprise, saw no markings.

"Does your saliva close the wound? I didn't know that vampires could do that." She clutched her sheet and tried to inch to the right, closer to the desk.

The corners of his lips twitched upward.

"I'm a wizard, Hermione."

Inch by inch, inch by inch.

He retracted his fangs. She gave a mental sigh of relief.

"But you have no wand," she argued.

He blinked at her, neither confirming nor denying her declaration.

Her eyes widened in amazement.

"And you didn't say anything either! All you have to do is…" her voice dropped to a disbelieving whisper, "think?"

The implications of that were staggering. Not only could he easily overpower nearly anyone physically, but also magically.

Draco nodded, almost imperceptibly.

"Contrary to the hearsay," he said.

So he had researched his condition, and found that reality – much to Hermione's chagrin – offered something that wasn't recorded in books.

Fascinating.

But if Draco was so powerful, why didn't the Death Eaters use him? He would be the ultimate weapon, and no one would suspect it. What was going on here?

Inch by inch.

Draco caught her arm and cocked his head; a lock of his blond hair fell to the side.

"Where are you going?"

_Shit! _

In the blink of an eye, he disappeared and reappeared in front of her, twirling the letter opener in his fingers.

"Is this what you want?"

She swallowed. She had to stay calm. She had to keep him talking.

"I guess it won't be of much use to me if you can touch it."

"Platinum," he said, answering the question on the tip of her tongue.

She exhaled slowly. She was _so _fucked.

As if he could read her thoughts, he gave her a malicious smile, and she saw the inhuman gleam return to his eyes.

To her disgust, he extended his tongue and dragged the letter opener over it, slicing it. His blood pooled on the surface, dripped over his chin and fell down to the carpet.

She looked up and saw that he was giving her _that _look again. It made her feel sexual, and vulnerable, and female.

"You must have to Scourgify this place a lot," she said, trying to reduce the tension by cracking a ... bad... joke.

A stake... how could she distract him long enough to make a wooden stake? She was running out of options…

He didn't react, but instead cupped the back of her neck with his hand to draw her to him. His eyes were hooded and she looked down at his bloody mouth, feeling both desire and revulsion at the thought of kissing him this way.

She tried another tactic. She had to get him talking.

"It's not real," she said in a lowered voice, her lips brushing his. "The desire isn't real; it's induced by your vampiric abilities."

_Of course! He didn't need a wand._

"You magicked me when you drank from me. None of this is _real_, Draco."

He backed away slightly, eyes flashing down at her. She felt as if the intensity in his eyes was laying her bare before him. For a fleeting instant, she _knew _that she saw the human Draco in there.

In a husky voice, he replied, "I did no such thing. This is the most real sensation I've had since..." His gaze flickered down to her lips. "Then."

Draco's eyes met hers again, and she understood. The human and the vampire were one and the same. Her heart raced with the knowledge that he was within her grasp, if only she could reach him. She just needed to stave off his bloodlust.

But if she couldn't…

"Your reaction was…" - he smirked - "most surprising."

He leaned down to kiss her.

Trying to keep the panic out of her voice, she started, "Draco, I… wait-"

Before she could utter another word, his mouth was on hers and his tongue inside her. The letter opener dropped to the ground with a thud. Any thoughts of resisting flew out the window as she felt Draco's hands roaming over her body, and his tongue swirling in her mouth.

She felt warm, encased by him. Her heart fluttered from being in his embrace with his arms around her. Desire for this man, this vampire, made her skin hot. Unable to resist, she responded and ground herself into him eliciting a few animalistic grunts from him.

She felt the tears come unbidden. Much as she had dreamed of being with him, she now anguished over the circumstances of their kiss. They had brought her to _him_. Her heart simply ached and she dug her fingernails into his bare shoulders in despair. Fighting back a sob, her throat tightened and she accidentally swallowed his blood. It was sweet, not as metallic as she would have expected.

_That was it!_

The sudden realization snapped her out of the self-pitying thoughts. If she turned into a vampire, not only would she be a match for him, but she could easily overpower any guards on the way out. Maybe she could mount her _own _attack on the Death Eaters. If she was going to die, she would take as many of them as she could with her.

Wrapping her arms around Draco to draw him closer, she tenderly, experimentally, sucked the blood from his tongue and swallowed.

Suddenly, he tensed, and then his entire body gave a violent shudder. He slowly pulled away from her, and her heart beat rapidly in fear. Would he know what she was doing? She looked up at him and her lips parted in surprise.

His features were graced with an expression of absolute rapture. His eyes were bright and luminous in their silver color. His mouth was slightly open and his fangs were gleaming, dripping with his blood and hers.

"Do it again," he rasped.

She brought her free hand up to grasp his hair, but she could scarcely pull his head down to hers before his mouth was already on her. Their lips locked and his tongue pushed against hers, wanting more. Slowly, she sucked, and swallowed his blood. He grunted, shuddered again, and pressed himself into her. He was naked now. She could feel it through the sheet. He must have removed his trousers too quickly for her to see.

She sucked again, and swallowed. He groaned into her mouth. She did it again, and again, and again. He groped at her back, clutched at her rear, pulled on her arms, threaded his hands through her hair, and pressed himself into her until he could do nothing but writhe against her. She felt his chest vibrate as he growled and groaned each time she drew on his blood.

Suddenly, he dug his fingers into her flesh, and rocked up and into her. A warm wetness spread on the sheet over her stomach.

_Did he just…? Merlin! That was the most erotic experience she'd ever had._

Draco rested his forehead against hers, and she opened her eyes to see that his were closed. The low growl now sounded more like a contented purr, and the vibrations from his chest were almost soothing.

Would he let her do that to him again? Or would he be suspicious? She would need a lot more blood to become a vampire. Not to mention that she had to lose more of hers. At least, with this method of acquiring it, she wasn't in a position of complete weakness.

She considered her options. Maybe she could get him to talk to her some more, now that his baser needs had been met.

Slowly, she tried to extricate herself from his embrace. Clutching her sheet, she released his neck and slid to the left. In the process, her thigh rubbed against him and to her surprise she felt that he was still rock hard.

Draco's eyes snapped open at the friction and he growled down at her.

He looked dangerous. She tried to keep the waver out of her voice and address him calmly.

"Dra—"

Firmly, he tugged at her sheet and it fell into a pool around her feet. For a full second, he leered at her nakedness, unmoving. She steeled herself.

_Here it comes._

Unexpectedly, he dropped his head down and started roughly sniffing her hair, her face and her neck. He lowered himself further and his mouth and nose grazed her breasts, nipples, and stomach. His hands followed, kneading her skin. She gasped as he went lower, touching her, inhaling her everywhere.

Her skin was overheated and yet she shivered when he knelt before her and began to lick her inner thigh where some of her fluid had dripped down.

He lifted her leg and pinned it to the wall to gain more access. The pressure of his tongue increased, and he indiscriminately lapped at the inside of her thighs, juncture, and groin.

There was no finesse. He was like an animal, licking and lapping at her skin. She yelped each time he touched her clitoris, and he painfully dug his fingers into her posterior and thigh. She splayed her hands against the wall to brace herself. He licked faster, and became rougher with her, grunting with each movement. Sometimes, the pressure of his tongue caused an uncomfortable pain on her sensitive nub, and other times it caused a jolt of severe pleasure; she never knew what would come next. She threaded her fingers into his hair in an attempt to control his movements, but to no avail.

Suddenly, she screamed at the piercing pain of his bite and then bit her lip as Draco drank from her, grunting and moaning with abandon at each suck and swallow. She could feel the skin at the junction of her inner thigh being suctioned into his mouth. Without warning, a sharp, severe pleasure rolled through her body and she threw her head back, keening and thrusting towards him. Without breaking contact, he reached up and dragged her down to the ground. Her head hit the floor and she bucked her hips. To restrict her erratic movements, he pinned one leg down and held the other above his shoulder, wrapped around his neck.

Knowing that she might die was the only thing that kept her cognizant through the whirlwind of sensation. Straining her arm, she reached for the letter opener. It wasn't silver, but it was sharp. As another wave of pleasure overtook her, she cried out and stabbed him to the hilt in between his shoulder and neck.

Abruptly releasing her, he reared back and roared in pain. But since the blade wasn't silver, he removed it in a blink of an eye and was back on top, fangs bared, and snarling angrily over her.

"You would have killed me," she gasped, trying and failing to keep her voice steady.

She might still bleed to death from the bite to her thigh if he didn't regain enough of his mind to heal her soon. She didn't even know if he would.

The anger in his face subsided slightly. His wound was bleeding and her blood was dripping from his mouth onto her breasts. He licked his lips, eyeing the small pools and rivulets of blood decorating her chest. Before he could bite her breast too, she lunged and bit down on his wound.

Draco howled. Hermione wrapped her arms and legs around him, holding on as tightly as she could, and swallowed as much of his blood as she was able. His body shuddered and he moaned with abandon each time she drank from him. She felt his arms encircle and lift her body so that they were sitting upright.

Without warning, she felt him sink into her, and slide up her passage. They gasped.

Hermione turned to Draco. His eyes were shining; he was terrifyingly beautiful.

"Please, don't stop," he rasped at her.

She bit his wound again, and Draco pulled her down hard, impaling her as far as he could.

"Huu-uuuh!" she grunted as the air was forced from her with the power of his thrust.

He began to rock his pelvis back and forth, and maneuvered her hips and bum to his movements to increase the force of his entry.

Their bodies, now splattered with blood, slipped and slid back and forth with each penetration. He pushed and pulled on her pelvis, grunting and growling. The sounds coming from him were increasingly desperate and frustrated, as if he were reaching for something unattainable. She drank once more from him when suddenly, she found herself flipped over on her hands and knees.

"Aaaaah!" she yelped in surprise.

Before she had a chance to catch her breath, he pushed her chest down to the floor, circled her underbelly with his arm and thrust into her from behind with a yell of satisfaction. A whimper half in pleasure, half in pain, was pushed out of her. She tried to grab onto something to brace herself, but there was nothing on the floor that would help. Her body rocked forward, slipping on the floor with each of his thrusts, completely out of control.

Hot breath was on the back of her neck and, knowing what would come next, she grabbed his forearm and bit down as hard as she could.

Draco thrust, howled, and sank his fangs into her, claiming her. The pleasure was so intense, it was all she could do to keep drawing on his blood. Her vision went black and wave after wave of orgasmic bliss rocked her body with each of his frenzied thrusts.

She heard an unrestrained wailing and realized that it was her own as he rammed into her. Just when she thought she might die in the throes of rapture, he grunted into her neck and sank into her, once, twice and a third time before hot seed emptied into her.

Panting, he leaned over her for a few seconds before delicately extracting his fangs. A warm tingling told her that he had closed all of her wounds. She tried to keep sucking the blood from where she had bit him, but he gently pried her mouth away, removed his arm, and rolled off her and onto his back.

Legs finally giving out, Hermione collapsed on the ground in a mess of blood and fluids. She couldn't move anymore, and just lay down on her stomach. Resting her head on her forearm, she turned to face Draco.

He was lying on his back with one arm behind his head, facing her, studying her. Even with the blood matted in his hair and dripping from his mouth, he looked sated and completely human. Slowly, a lazy post-coital grin graced his features.

"Did you like drinking my blood?"

He ran his thumb over his jaw, collecting some more of her blood, and smiling, gingerly sucked it off of his thumb.

She exhaled, her voice was hoarse from screaming. "I would have died without it."

Draco glanced up at the ceiling, and then back at her. He looked slightly disgusted with himself and said, "I don't think so, I could have…" He sighed in resignation. "Yeah, you're probably right."

Weakly, she reached for the sheet, now completely bloodied. Draco seemed every bit the human man she knew, and his penis was lying limply on his thigh, but there was no reason to parade herself around and risk tempting him further.

He grabbed her wrist as she pulled the sheet up.

"Please, don't cover yourself." His voice was soft, pleading. "I want to… look at you."

Her throat felt tight. He sounded so tender and caring. She thought she just might cry again. What a horrible world they lived in.

She glanced at his eyes. They were sated, and his fangs were retracted despite the mess of blood around them, but she didn't want to take the chance.

"Draco, I won't live through another round. You can't control yourself."

He stared at her and firmly removed the sheet from her hand. For a fleeting instant, she despaired at the thought that even at his most human he couldn't be reasoned with. But he swiftly shook out the sheet and spread it over her himself, so that everything but her face and the arm she was resting her cheek on was covered.

She didn't know what to think at this point.

Her plan didn't work. She hadn't been able to drink enough blood to become a vampire; he had pulled his arm away. Her only hope was if Draco were to change her himself. But seeing as how she was betrayed by Padma and brought to him, he would never give her an opportunity to overpower him. Maybe he didn't want to kill her, but he surely wasn't going to allow her to escape.

The stark realization that it was possible for Draco to be in complete control of himself made everything worse. He was conscious of his actions at this moment, and completely aware of himself when not at the mercy of his own bloodlust. That meant that he had, in sound mind and body, agreed to do Voldemort's bidding, which included everything that had happened to her up until now, and whatever he would do to her in the future.

He leaned back on the floor and slowly turned to face her. The dark blood on his face contrasted with his pale blazing eyes, which were full of regret.

"I'm sorry," he said, clearing his throat. "I'm sorry for all of this."

Her throat hurt, her chest ached. Her whole body hurt, inside and out. She was spent, exhausted… and her heart had been broken. Much as she didn't want to believe it, she had lost him to the other side.

"What difference does it make? Isn't that what they wanted you to do?"

He flinched, and said, "Partly."

She blew a curl out of the line of her vision. "So, what are you going to do to me now?"

He turned back to her, searching her face for…what?

"That depends on you."

She let out a mirthless laugh. Of course. Give them answers and he'll let her live? Or spare her a painful torture? She would never have imagined an interrogation scenario like this in a million years. He hadn't even asked her any questions yet. Not about missions, locations, Horcruxes—nothing, and she already felt defeated.

This must be the beginning of the interrogation now. She was already light-headed and weakened from the blood loss. Seeing Draco again, changed and now working for those that he had despised just made her sick. He had probably told them of her feelings for him, which would be precisely why she was brought to him.

She didn't know how much more of this she could withstand. She already felt used and broken by his betrayal. She was physically, mentally, and emotionally spent. At this point, she didn't have the strength to resist an interrogation.

Being a strategist herself, she had to appreciate how well thought out the whole scenario was.

"Fuck," she muttered to herself.

Utterly exhausted, she allowed her eyelids to close. After doing her best for her friends, family, and the wizarding world, suicide didn't scare her. She was ready to die.

_Good-bye Harry, good-bye Ron. And good luck._

Draco's voice interrupted her thoughts. "Do you still want to be a vampire?"

**Chapter End Notes:**

Thanks to my betas, this chapter was completely awful before they went through it with me.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Notes:**

A big thanks to my betas auntlynnie and GryffindorSlytherin. They are the best, and have loads of patience. Without them, this fic would be rubbish.

**Chapter 3**

Draco's voice interrupted her thoughts. "Do you still want to be a vampire?"

Hermione's eyes snapped open. "What?"

He was sitting up, splattered with blood, and leaning back against the wall with his elbows resting on his knees. His eyes were half shut in a post-coital, post-feeding bliss.

"You were almost there, so I pulled away. Although I could imagine nothing better than…" He stared down at her, swallowed, and seemed to be reconsidering his words. "My alternative was death, otherwise, it's not something that I would have chosen. You'll be more powerful, but you'll…"

In disbelief, she watched shame grace his face. He looked down at his hands and said, "You'll have difficulty controlling yourself… even around those you love."

Was she delirious? With the way that her head was reeling, she just might be.

He looked pained, and continued, "I don't know why you would want this. I think you're making a mistake, but I… I can deny you nothing."

He laid his wrist on the floor next to her face and magically opened a small wound for her to drink from.

"Two or three sips should do it. I can feel you on the edge of transformation already. Your body will heal quickly."

Her head was swimming. She couldn't process what was happening. None of this made sense.

"But I—"

"Would you rather suck from somewhere else?" He smirked down at her. And _there _was the old Draco again. He was confusing her even further and she felt unable to think clearly.

She struggled to sit while keeping herself covered in the bloody sheet. Draco leaned over to help her and she averted her eyes from his privates. He seemed to be completely at ease sitting naked and splattered with blood—a vampire in his most natural state, she supposed. He wrapped the sheet around her and over her shoulders so that she remained completely covered, and tenderly propped her up against the wall.

Reeling from the blood loss, she struggled to bring her vision into focus. "If you changed me, I could overpower you and leave."

"Is _that _why you wanted it? I was going to let you leave anyway, after I…" He looked down at his hands, and back up at her, "I didn't think I would…" He made a sound of disgust and turned away.

_What _was happening? She felt faint, she couldn't think. There were too many things to process right now, and the price of erring was high. Was this a trap? She felt a swift rush of air, and before she completely understood that Draco had disappeared, he had already returned. Several vials filled with a dark blue liquid were in his hands.

Her head lolled and she looked down at them questioningly.

"Blood-Replenishing Potion."

But, of course, and laced with Veritaserum so she would reveal identities and locations.

"Well played, Malfoy," she slurred.

She'd kill herself before she betrayed anyone. Her vision started to darken and she felt as if she were going to throw up.

"Hermione."

Draco's gray eyes swam in front of her.

"Hermione…" His voice was a caress.

Everything went black.

ooooooooooooo

"A_gain_, Granger? There's no point in pretending that you're still sleeping. The temperature of your blood and the rhythm of your heart beat tell me when you wake."

Hermione opened her eyes to glare up at Draco, who was smirking down at her. She was cradled in his arms and his hard body shifted underneath her. Thankfully, she was still covered by the sheet, but her body was sticky with all of the dried blood. She felt revitalized, which meant that he must have force-fed her the potion while she was passed out.

He was humming, and his fingertips were lightly playing with her hair and massaging her scalp. She shut her eyes, trying to ignore the tingling in her body, and her feelings for him. She couldn't let him mindfuck her. She had to figure out what was happening. Exhaling sharply, she opened her eyes and looked up at him.

"Did you drug me?"

His expression was impassive. "No."

Through it all, he hadn't lied to her yet. Even if he had put Veritaserum in the potion, and told her so, there wasn't anything that she could do about it.

"Ask me something." She wanted to be certain.

"How many times did you come?"

She sat up and turned around to face him.

Still sated, still no fangs. Still smirking.

Truth be told, she had no idea how many times she came, but she had no compulsion to tell him that, which meant that…

It was as if she'd been on a roller coaster that just came to an abrupt halt and sped off in the opposite direction. She studied his eyes, which despite his lecherous smirk, were reflecting the longing she felt towards him.

"You'd honestly let me go?"

His smirk fell and his voice softened.

"You know I would."

God help her, she didn't ever want to leave him.

Hot tears began to sting her eyes. So too, did Draco's become luminescent in their intensity. He looked as if there were several things that he wanted to say to her, but there was no need. She understood him, she always had.

"I wish…" he took a steadying breath, "I wish that things were different for us."

Reaching out from underneath her sheet, she clasped his hand. He looked down, and slowly exhaled. Delicately, he encased her hand in his, taking whatever she would offer.

"I love you too, Draco."

At her admission, he gave a slow, sad smile. She threaded her hand through his hair and brought his head to rest in the crook of her neck.

oooooooooo

_Draco was bent over on the floor in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. His body repeatedly shuddered with sobs that he couldn't control, and they echoed off the tiles. The never ending panic and helplessness had taken such a toll on his mental and physical state that he had no control over either, and simply needed release. The tears had long since stopped flowing, but the pain in his chest kept him heaving and retching._

_He hadn't heard anybody enter due to the violence of his distress; he had locked the door and glamorized it to look as if there were repairs being made to keep intruders out. Therefore, the feel of a gentle pressure from a small hand on his back surprised him._

_He didn't think much about who it was, only that there was another soul with him in his loneliness and desperation. So when the hand slid to his shoulder in an effort to cradle him, he allowed his body to be guided to a kneeling position and he laid his head on a warm robe-covered lap. Wanting to be closer, he wrapped his arms tightly around what felt to be a petite girl. Her warmth added a small amount of comfort to his cold isolation._

_She lightly stroked his hair and rubbed his shoulders while he continued sobbing. Just wanting to feel the closeness of someone else, anyone else, he clung to her tightly, digging his fingers into her sides. She hummed an unfamiliar melody, interspersed with the occasional "Sssshhhh." Slowly, slowly, the frequency of his heaving lessened until his breathing took on an almost regular cadence, interspersed with the occasional shuddering gasp for air._

_Had Pansy followed him into the boys' loo? He had distanced himself from her lately, along with all his other friends this year._

_His eyes felt puffy and they stung, so he rubbed them before looking up. The humming stopped._

_Granger._

_Sitting on the bench by the bathroom window, her hazel eyes studied him, but the expression on her face was neutral. He was surprised, but too exhausted and defeated to really care about the implications of his enemy seeing him this way. Furthermore, a hit to his reputation paled in comparison to the far worse problems that he was dealing with._

_After it appeared that neither would say anything, she again stroked his hair and resumed her humming. Feeling dumbstruck by her quiet acceptance of him, he slowly rested his head back down, nestling into the "V" of her closed legs. Wanting to get closer, he pressed his chest to her knees, and clutched her body tighter._

_If this made her uncomfortable, she didn't say anything, and continued comforting him. He closed his eyes and found himself reaching around her slim body, rubbing small patterns on her back and side with his fingers. He was reveling in Granger's presence, her stroking, her humming, and the warmth of her body. And yet his heart still ached. The pressure in his chest was still there, as it had been since he'd been given the mission to kill Dumbledore._

_"Draco." Her voice was a whisper, barely disturbing the quiet of their half embrace._

_He couldn't tell if she was asking him a question or just saying his name to comfort him._

_"Draco," she repeated. His given name sounded foreign coming from her._

_He rested his chin on the tops of her thighs and looked up. Her eyes were non-judgmental, sympathetic, and… beautiful._

_"If this is what it's doing to you," she said as she delicately pushed aside his fringe, "you're on the wrong side."_

_He was so exhausted that he felt numb and his eyes closed of their own accord._

_"I know," he mumbled._

_She cupped his cheek and he leaned into her soft, warm palm._

_"Please. Come to us. Talk with Dumbledore."_

_His throat was dry and hurt from crying and retching. He shook his head._

_"Can't," he rasped._

_Hermione brushed his cheek with her thumb. He felt a slight residue from his dried tears flake away. She caressed his cheek back and forth lightly, watching the movement. The pad of her thumb traveled over his upper and then lower lip. She pressed her thumb into the soft crease, rubbed it, and then returned to caressing his cheek._

_He felt shaken from the intimacy of her gesture and wished that she would do it again. He looked up at her, and her eyes widened in surprise at what she saw in his. She withdrew her hand. It was shaking. Not wanting her to stop touching him, he tightened his grip around her waist._

_She stammered, "If - if you're worried about the rest of the—"_

_There were only two people that he gave a fuck about._

_"My parents," he croaked._

_She looked at him questioningly. He lay his head back down on her lap. The pain in his chest was beginning to swell again. He shut his eyes tight and squeezed her, causing her to gasp._

_"He'll kill us all," his voice was barely a whisper._

_At voicing the threat which had been hanging over the Malfoy family since the school year started, and the consequence for failure of an assignment that he was solely responsible for, he found his panic returning. His world was crumbling apart and there wasn't anything that he could do. Everything was out of his control. He ground his teeth together and unwittingly crushed Hermione in his arms. He just wanted to feel something besides despair, to hold onto something so that he wouldn't be so lonely in this cage constructed for him by the Dark Lord._

_"Aaah! Malfoy, that hurts!" she protested._

_Immediately, he_ _released her waist and crawled up her body. Hermione's eyes widened._

_"Draco?" she said, trying to discern his intentions. "What are you doing?"_

_He gripped the bench, raising himself, grabbed her upper arm with his other hand, completely encircling it with his fingers; he released the bench and laced his fingers into her hair. With a quick intake of breath she gave a panicked glance to his lips._

_"Draco?" she whispered. "Draco?" But her eyes were dark and her breathing came in erratic pants. She wanted it, too._

_He tilted her face up to his, and before she could say anything else, his mouth descended on hers. She didn't move at first, but when her disbelief melted into responsiveness, warmth encompassed him. He pressed the softness of her body against his and she let out a whimper._

_He prodded her mouth open with his tongue, pressing and pushing, doing all he could to feel her hot, wet mouth. Massaging, and probing, she in turn explored his mouth, tasting him. He sucked on her bottom lip and she gasped after he nipped her. His head was a whirlwind from the sensations he felt in his body. Releasing her lips, he continued his assault on her neck with increasing passion. Desire completely overcame him, and he pushed her down on the bench and covered his body with his, reveling in the feel of her. She was so soft and warm._

_He felt her hands thread through his hair and grip the back of his neck and he let out a gruff moan. Reaching down, she snuck her hands up his shirt to feel his skin, digging her fingers into his flesh. He needed her, needed the contact. Panting, he roughly pried her robes open and worked on the buttons of her blouse._

_She ran her hands over his chest and shoulders, trying to bring him closer to her. The hot tightening in his abdomen spread and he pried her legs apart, grinding his erection against the junction of her thighs._

_Warm. She was so warm there._

_"Draco, wait…" she whispered huskily, and moaned, spurring him on._

_She panted and he grabbed her thigh, moving his hand upwards under her skirt and towards her bum. She tried to protest, but he covered her mouth with his. His tongue was inside her again, his mouth devouring her hungrily. All he could think about was being inside her, touching her, feeling her, and he craved her touch in turn. He rocked his pelvis into hers with a steady rhythm that he replicated with his tongue gliding in and out of her mouth._

_"Draco," she whispered, pulling away, "It's too fast, we have to stop."_

_He heard her voice, but her protest didn't register. He needed to feel. He needed human contact. Her breasts were soft and she writhed and whimpered when he squeezed them. His fingers reached down again to her bum wriggling under her knickers and he dug in to the flesh. His thumb wrapped around her thigh and probed for the source of her wetness._

_"Aaah! No!"_

_All he heard was her cry. His kiss intensified and the thrusts of his pelvis became more forceful. His left hand cupped her bum under her skirt, and moved it so that her core would rub against his erection. Every rub sent a jolt of pleasure through his body. He felt hot and full of tension all over. His right hand began to pull on her knickers. He didn't care if he ripped them off of her. He wanted her, now._

_Suddenly, his head flew to the side and his cheek stung with pain. He froze, and blinked, clearing his vision. He looked down at Hermione below him, rubbing the hand she had slapped him with. Her hair was spread out, she was holding her breath, her lips were swollen, and she was watching him, eyes full of lust and apprehension._

_"S-sorry," he said, and blinked again. Her expression turned to one of relief and she straightened her knickers. He backed up slowly, sat on the bench beside her, and ran a hand through his hair._

_He held out his hand to her. Warily, she took it and he pulled her up to a sitting position as well._

_"It's too fast," she exclaimed breathlessly._

_Draco bent over and held his head in his hands. "I didn't mean to… Hermione… I'm sorry."_

_They had passed the need for pretenses the moment she chose to stay in the bathroom after discovering him. After a pause in which the only sound was the dripping of a leaky faucet, he looked at her out of the corner of his eye and added, "For everything," and looked down at his feet again._

_Another pause, and he heard her voice catch in her throat before she answered, "Thank you."_

_He turned his head and watched her re-button her blouse. She met his eyes, blushed, and looked to the side._

_He motioned to her lap. "Can I…"_

_Wordlessly, she nodded, and he lay down on the bench in a fetal position, resting his head on her lap. He closed his eyes and let his arm hang over her knees. Still wanting to touch her, he lazily caressed her shins, but allowed himself to go no further, much as he craved her._

_They both were silent and again all he could hear was the leaky faucet, and the sounds of their breathing, now deep and even. He felt her fingers return to his hair and he sighed. He wished that the two of them could be someplace else._

_"Draco, when you're ready, come to us. I'll be there for you. Don't forget that."_

oooooooooooo

"Come on, Granger, let's get you out of here. Sunrise is in two and a half hours. They'll be here before then to pick you up, and I..." His voice caught and he looked at her from under his fringe. "I don't know how much longer I can be around you…"

Her eyes flickered down to his nakedness. Still limp. For now.

He stood, and still holding her hand, pulled her to a standing position. He exhaled and a quick blast of wind told her that that he had just used _Scourgify _on them both.

The display of his magic reminded her of what she was missing.

"Where's my wand?"

At her question, she saw his mouth flatten into a line of reluctant acceptance. She was no longer interested in becoming a vampire. He couldn't blame her.

"I don't have it. I'm sorry."

He eyed the bloody sheet wrapped around her body.

"What do you usually wear?"

Hermione looked down and thought a bit. "Something black or grey… form-fitting, but not restricting. Not shiny. I need to be unseen."

"Hmm…" Draco tapped his chin, chuckling despite himself.

Hermione narrowed her eyes, "Maybe I'd be better off with the sheet."

But when the transfiguration of the bed linen was complete, she looked down to see the short-sleeved blouse, skirt, knee socks and shoes of the Hogwarts uniform.

She laughed.

Draco motioned with his finger and Hermione twirled around as he assessed his work. "It looks strange on you."

"How so?" Hermoine asked, still smiling.

His eyes were boring into her. "You're not a girl anymore."

She swallowed. And he was no boy.

"Draco?" Her voice lowered at his proximity.

"Hmm?" His fingers were caressing the skin of her arms and she shivered.

"What will they do to you?" If he was letting her go, they would know. What would he do? Her heart went out to him. Even after all this time, was he still trapped?

"Nothing. I'm leaving. They won't be able to find me."

She felt giddy and she smiled. Was he finally joining them?

"What about…" she raised her eyebrows and looked around the room.

"The Manor will lock itself up to outsiders. I have no use for it anymore." He gave her a half grin. "You've probably had enough of my blood to be identified as a Malfoy at this point. You want it?" he asked, gesturing to the room broadly, "It's yours."

Not knowing quite how to answer such an offer, she remained silent.

He brought his eyes back to hers, gave a wistful sigh and asked, "Where to?"

She looked down at her uniform. "Actually… Hogwarts will do, we have ways of getting to headquarters from—"

She almost fell over at the sudden nausea caused by side-along Apparition. Draco righted her, and she breathed in the fresh night air, trying to rid herself of the stomach ache. He had demonstrated his power to her before, but his speed and ability to perform magic just by thinking still caught her unawares.

Looking up and to her left, she saw the lights of the castle that had been her home away from home for so many years. They were near the Forbidden Forest. Draco, in his pale, inhuman nakedness, looked as if he truly belonged there. A feeling of dread formed a pit in her stomach.

"Draco?" Her voice shook slightly.

He turned to her, a despondent expression on his face.

"Are you… you're not coming with me, are you?"

"If I could control…" He clenched his jaw and closed his eyes. "No, I think not."

Her stomach churned and tears pricked her eyes. "Draco, we'd work with you. You'd be a great asset with your abilities. The Order would work around your… limitations."

He smiled sadly down at her and stroked her hair. "With all that blood during raids? You'd be dueling Death Eaters while I ate and fucked the person nearest to me—friend or enemy. I'd be a liability."

He tensed and leaned back, slightly away from her.

"In fact," he said, his voice tight, "I don't know how much time I have left with you before I… before I do something we both regret."

"But what if you fed and," she looked to the ground, "you know… beforehand?" She looked up at him again.

"I fed before you woke tonight...and still I…" He shook his head. "I would kill you," he said, while inhaling her scent. He closed his eyes briefly and continued, "and I'd enjoy it immensely."

She fingered the tie around her blouse and noticed that it was the green and silver of the Slytherin house.

"What's-"

"Something to remember me by," he whispered with a smile, "and to fuck with your friends."

She laughed, sniffled to try and keep from crying, and then gave up, allowing a few hot tears to spill down her cheeks. He drew her in close to embrace her.

"But now you're free, after all this time," her voice cracked slightly and the rough pad of his thumb wiped away her tears. "Draco, I don't want to lose you."

His voice was a low rumble in her ear, "Hermione, I've wished I was with you every night of my existence, but I just… can't."

He gently cupped her face and leaned in towards her, wavering. She closed her eyes and silent tears trickled down her cheeks. After a few seconds of the cold, night air causing the paths of her tears to chill, he lightly brushed his mouth against hers. Her lips parted when she felt his tongue tentatively prod it open and his fingers gently caress the skin of her throat. She shivered, and felt despair. Her body trembled with the sobs that she refused to let out. She felt desperate; he was going to leave. She reached up to draw him closer and deepen the kiss, but he pulled away with a whimper.

He was panting, and his fangs were out.

"I'm sorry, Hermione. I can't."

She felt panicky. "Draco! Please, wait! We haven't even considered…"

So quickly that she couldn't see, he reappeared roughly ten feet away in the thick of the trees, grey eyes gleaming out at her, ferocious in their intensity.

She started towards him and he spoke with a choked cry, "No, don't! Stay there!"

She backed up, fearful, but she didn't want to lose him, "Draco, wait-"

In a barely controlled growl, he cut her off. "Hermione… win the war."

And before she could blink, he was gone in a rustle of the trees.

Fin.

**Chapter End Notes:**

Aaaaand... that's the end of the story.  
>Seriously, I thought that this is how it should end, it's more realistic (in a world of magic and vampires, lol) but since that would make everyone unhappy, I've made an alternate ending. Coming soon...<p> 


	4. Chapter 4  Alternate ending

**Author's Chapter Notes:**

*sound of tape rewinding*

Back at the manor...

**Chapter 4 - Alternate ending**

"Come on, Granger, let's get you out of here. Sunrise is in two and a half hours. They'll be here before then to pick you up, and I..." His voice caught and he looked at her from under his fringe. "I don't know how much longer I can be around you..."

Her eyes flickered down to his nakedness. Still limp, for now.

He stood, and still holding her hand, pulled her to a standing position. He exhaled and a quick blast of wind told her that he had just used _Scourgify _on them both.

The display of his magic reminded her of what she was missing.

"Where's my wand?"

At her question, she saw his mouth flatten into a line of reluctant acceptance. It wasn't a lifestyle he would wish on anyone, least of all Hermione, but he had hoped. And yet, he knew it was better this way.

"I don't have it. I'm sorry."

He eyed the bloody sheet wrapped around her body.

"What do you usually wear?"

Hermione looked down at herself, seemingly in thought, but ignored his question.

"Draco, what will they do with you?"

"Nothing," he answered. "I'm leaving; they won't find me."

"Where to?"

He looked out the window and into the night.

"It doesn't really matter. Anywhere I can hunt."

"People?" she asked.

"People taste better than animals, wizards taste better than Muggles. You…" he gave her a feral smile, "taste better than anyone I've ever had."

She raised an eyebrow. "So a Mudblood tastes better than a pureblood?"

"Mudbloods, purebloods, half-bloods, they all taste the same. Really, Hermione, do you want to talk politics at a time like this?"

Hermione furrowed her brow.

"I'm just thinking."

She bit her lip and saw that Draco was staring at her mouth.

"Would you come with me, then? You'd be an incredible asset with your strength, intelligence, power, and—"

"Hermione," he cut her off, "I'd kill you and enjoy it immensely. You've witnessed first-hand how hard it is to control myself, especially around you."

"But what if we could keep your needs in check?"

He crossed his arms in front of his chest. "And how do you propose to do that?"

There was a pause while she stared up at him, weighing the advantages, weighing the consequences. Forgoing her human life would be a sacrifice, but the two of them would make for a most powerful weapon indeed. Together, they could win. It would all be over.

"We could hunt together… hunt animals, that is-" Draco made a face of disgust, but as he realized the implication of her suggestion in its entirety, his eyes widened, and his body tensed.

"- and while out hunting, we could…"

He bent over, almost falling to the floor from the exertion of trying to control himself. "Fuck," he whimpered, as his fangs extended.

"Well, yes," she continued, watching him with a small, devious smile, "and we could restrain ourselves with silver if needed. We haven't even considered the possibilities from working with potions. Draco, we can make this work, we can—"

"No, stay over there," he panted. "Just the thought of you…" he visibly shuddered, and continued. "Listen. Hermione. You wouldn't be able to live with your friends. You couldn't have children. No more daylight. Ever. And you couldn't even be with people unless you had fed and…and…" he whimpered and turned around so he wouldn't be facing her.

"Draco…" she called him, lowering her voice seductively.

His voice came out in a threatening rumble, but he refused to turn around. "I have to get away from you, and you have to leave before they come. I can't-—"

She dropped the sheet and it fluttered the ground around her.

With a growl, he reared on her with his fangs bared. His eyes raked in her naked form and she could see his muscles contract as he restrained himself from approaching her. Slowly, she walked towards him. He snarled and backed up against the wall.

"Wait," he rasped, the human in him still trying to convince her otherwise.

Calmly, she picked up the letter opener and closed the space between them. His gray eyes were filled with lust, hunger and fear, flicking between the letter opener, her throat, and back up to her eyes. Tentatively, she reached out and touched his fangs with her fingertips. He opened his mouth with a shuddering gasp.

"Give it to me," she whispered.

"Hermione…," he was trembling now. "Please… don't…"

Draco sucked in a shaky breath as she slowly made an incision across his neck and chest. He leaned his head back against the wall and squeezed his eyes shut, shaking as the skin of her breasts, stomach and legs came into contact with his. He brought his arms up to hold her, clenched his hands in the air, and threw his fists back, denting the wall.

Hermione wrapped her arms around his rigid form, holding on as tight as she could, lowered her mouth to the incision, and sucked. Suddenly, the wind was knocked out of her as they crashed to the floor, rolling in a violent embrace.

She held on for dear life, drinking as much as she could. Hermione started to feel small changes in her body, but she didn't stop. Suddenly gasping with surprise, she felt her fangs protrude for the first time. She threw her head back, screamed like a banshee, and sank her teeth into Draco's flesh.

00000000000000000000

00000000000000000000

The room was a disaster. It was a mess of upturned furniture, broken glass, torn carpet and other fabrics. The chandelier was reduced to broken shards in the middle of the room, and blood was splattered all over the place. Pieces of floorboard were ripped open, and there were several holes in the walls. Draco peered up at the ceiling where the chandelier should have been. He didn't remember being up there; how had they managed to do that?

He was naked, sitting against the wall, and purring contentedly. Hermione, equally bare, was lying on the floor, legs stretched out languidly, and resting her head on his lap. He played with a curl of her hair and drew patterns in the blood splattered on her skin.

"How much longer until sunrise?" she asked.

"About a half hour; you'll start to feel it instinctively soon enough."

"Shouldn't we worry about finding a place to hide and rest? They'll be wondering why Goyle hasn't returned with me."

He glanced over at the mangled corpse in the middle of the room with disinterest.

"There's no rush; it's still night in the United States."

She rose up to stare at him in amazement and his hands fell from her limply.

"You can Apparate to _North America_?"

"_We _can Apparate to the dark side of the moon if we wanted."

"Bollocks!" she said disbelievingly.

He pinched her nipple roughly and smirked when she bit her lip with a grunt.

"I've done it."

Hermione said incredulously, "But how did you know you could? You might have killed yourself trying."

He gazed back at her, unblinking, and her lips parted in comprehension.

"Oh."

"I was reckless. I didn't care. But, once there…it brought me some peace. It's quiet there, desolate… No Death Eaters, no screaming, no torture, no blood. The view of the earth is even more phenomenal than you can imagine. Although…" he said huskily, contemplating her, "there are far more beautiful sights right here."

She smiled warmly at him, and licked some blood off of his chin. It was Goyle's. He wrapped an arm around her and she nuzzled his neck.

"So we don't have to rest?" she queried.

"We do, but it's possible to go a day or so without. I think that recent events preclude the need for an early bedtime," he said, tugging on a curl playfully.

Hermione furrowed her brows. "Can I send a _Patronus _from here, or is the manor being watched? I'll need to let the Order know that I'm fine, and I'll be back by sunset."

"I wouldn't recommend it, no. We'll go someplace else." He raised an eyebrow. "How about the sunset after next?"

She pondered this for a moment before smiling devilishly at him, "If you can catch me."

Quick as the wind, she jumped up, ran, leapt off of the third floor balcony and disappeared into the night.

Stretching his limbs and yawning, Draco stood up and leisurely walked out onto the porch. He scratched his torso and sniffed the air around him.

Easy.

He cracked a smile. She still had a lot to learn, but he would have fun teaching her.

**Chapter End Notes:**

THIS STORY HASN'T ENDED YET! - I noticed on this site and others that there is a huge drop off in readers between this chapter and the next, and wondered if it could be due to people not realizing that this story continues on.

And that's the alternate ending! Happy endings seem so much happier when they're contrasted with what might have been.  
>So I'm curious, what did you guys think? Which ending fitted the story better? Which one did you like better? (maybe you have the same answer for both, maybe they're different) Is it fun reading a story with multiple endings or is it just a gimmick? (because I really liked writing both endings, it's like getting my cake and eating it too. I thought this story was befitting of a tragic ending, but I wanted the two to be together)<br>Did the alternate ending even fit? Or did the mood change too abruptly from the rest of the story?  
>Thanks to everyone that reviewed, I love hearing everyone's thoughts. What they liked, what they didn't like, etc. I really appreciate those that take the time to express how they feel.<br>In any case, a big thanks to my betas, gryffindorslytherin and auntlynnie, for doing such a great job in going through my writing with a fine toothed comb. You guys are great.


	5. Chapter 5  Alternate Ending

**Chapter notes:**

Thanks to all the reviewers, you've inspired me to continue… both endings! (see what happens when you review? Sometimes authors listen! :)

And a big thanks to MargotLeFaye, who brainstormed with me and helped me flesh out what I hope will be a good continuation to the original chapters.

And to all those who thought the alternate ending was too (cringe!) Twilightish, all I have to say to that is: Challenge accepted!

That being said, consider yourselves warned. I'm not taking responsibility for tears shed over characters that are offed. Mwah hah hah!

**Chapter 5 – Alternate ending**

Harry was sitting at the kitchen table, staring at the unrolled parchment laid out before him. It was filled with Hermione's tiny neat handwriting.

Life, as he knew it, had ceased to exist.

Two days ago, a Patronus that they had never seen before had arrived, and Hermione's voice had spoken through it, announcing that she was fine and would be back soon. As if the shock, apprehensive relief and incredulity that they had all felt weren't enough, the Patronus continued to speak and relayed that Padma was a traitor and that more would be explained later by owl.

While the rest of them were at a loss for words, Ron cleverly shot off his Patronus in answer, asking who Hermione had turned into the first time she had taken Polyjuice potion. Harry smiled grimly at the trick question. Whoever was on the other end would assume it was a human that she had turned into.

Much as they wanted to, none of them had believed that this false Patronus could really be Hermione's. Surely it was a ploy by the Death Eaters. Either they had the wrong information about the form Hermione's Patronus would take, or Hermione had lied, successfully fooling them under whatever means they had used to extract the information from her.

To their shock, the silvery fox had reappeared with the correct answer and Hermione's voice reiterated that she would explain her changed Patronus soon, that its original form was an otter, and again, not to worry, she was fine.

She had not used her trigger word, which would have indicated that she was being coerced, but Harry still didn't like it. Padma, who had also gone missing, was now a traitor? And what more would Hermione have to explain? Why the changed Patronus?

This morning, her letter arrived by owl.

He could still see the words "Draco Malfoy" and "vampire" amongst the other words in her letter. They weren't written any differently and were crammed in with everything else that she had committed to the parchment, but they might as well have been emblazoned in a neon color.

"Harry," said Lupin.

He felt like he was in a bizarre dream. It just couldn't possibly be true. He would have been more believing if Hermione had died than if she had—

"Harry," Lupin's voice cut through Harry's reverie. "What are you thinking?"

He looked up startled, having completely forgotten that he was sitting in the kitchen with two other people. "I think… I think this is rubbish. It can't be true."

"It doesn't sound like her," Ron said, shaking his head. "Something's wrong."

Lupin drummed his fingers on the wooden table, clearly deep in thought. Harry and Ron went back to staring at the dreaded parchment. Suddenly, Lupin rapped his knuckles on the tabletop startling Harry and Ron.

"Do we agree that it _is _Hermione communicating with us? After all, she answered the question. I certainly wasn't aware that she had turned into Millicent Bulstrode's cat."

They remained silent, and Lupin took this as a sign to continue. "We know she hadn't been coerced in any way _then_, and she said that she would explain more later." Lupin gestured to the parchment. "We _could _check the parchment to see that it was indeed written by her hand, but I think neither of you doubt that it was indeed she who wrote it."

Ron opened his mouth to protest, but Lupin held up his finger. "You are going to say that Padma would have alerted them to our codes. But notice that Hermione had already told us that Padma was the one who betrayed her when she sent the Patronus." He paused, stroked his stubble, and then added, "I don't think anyone could control Hermione effectively; she's been able to throw off the Imperius curse for some time now. And even if she _was _coerced in some way, she would not have told us of Padma's betrayal. Padma could have been a spy for Voldemort, but Hermione compromised her as soon as she was able to communicate with us."

"But how would they know that Hermione had informed us?" Ron countered.

"She escaped, didn't she? Or rather, she and Malfoy did. Naturally, the Death Eaters would suspect that she told us."

"So Padma's a Death Eater now?" Ron said with disbelief. "I'd sooner believe that Hermione was a vampire."

"She's not been herself lately," Harry said grudgingly.

"That's an understatement," Ron muttered. "She made Luna look sane."

The three sat in thought.

"Do you think..." Ron began, "that she wanted revenge?"

"I guess we'll find out if we... meet her in battle," Lupin said warily.

"Revenge is one thing," Harry protested. "She would never be a Death Eater!"

"She betrayed Hermione to torture and death," Lupin countered. "Who's to say what she is capable of now?"

Harry watched Ron, whose nostrils were flaring. "Nothing makes sense. And why would Malfoy be a vampire?"

Lupin shrugged. "Why would I be a werewolf? Bad luck, I suppose. Or…" he raised his eyebrows and shifted his gaze between Harry and Ron, "punishment?"

Ron shook his head in denial. "This whole situation is fucked up. _Malfoy_ helping her escape? _Malfoy _leaving his Death Eater buddies?"

Lupin raised an eyebrow. "That's the part of her letter which should be the least surprising. _You _know how the Malfoys were punished after the incident at the Department of Mysteries; the situation that Draco was put in sixth year."

Ron crossed his arms in front of him and looked sullenly up at Lupin. "I don't bloody care. They deserved what they got."

Lupin continued, "Deserving or no, it coincides perfectly with what Hermione has been telling us about Draco all along."

Harry had been eyeing the exchange, saying nothing. Finally, he spoke. "Professor Lupin?"

Lupin's eyes shifted to Harry's. "Harry, you don't have to call me that."

"Force of habit," Harry answered. "Assuming that everything in this letter is true, Hermione _chose_to become a vampire."

Lupin nodded slowly, looking at Harry expectantly.

He took a deep breath, and continued. "Turning into a vampire… it's not something that Hermione would willingly do. To feed off of people? And to…" he felt his face go hot, and wasn't sure how to continue. The mere thought of Hermione participating in what little else he'd heard of vampire behaviour was unthinkable. He decided not to finish his sentence. "She even gets depressed when her battle plans end up killing Death Eaters. Remember the fake prisoner exchange? That was our deadliest operation to date. She was moping around for days after that.

"It wasn't just Death Eaters killed then," Lupin admonished him.

"But that wasn't her fault!" Ron protested.

"I just… I just can't believe that she would choose this path willingly. It's not like her," he said, echoing Ron's words.

"Isn't it, though?" Lupin said, looking back and forth between Harry and Ron. "She says that because of her transformation, we'll be able to end the war soon. She believes she sacrificed her human life to defeat Voldemort once and for all. Something that any of us would do in a heartbeat."

Harry scratched the table and thought. Would he have done the same in her stead? If he truly believed that it would work?

Absolutely.

Ron asked belligerently, "It's one thing to sacrifice your life, and another to become a vampire. How does her becoming a vampire give us a victory?"

Professor Lupin sat back in his chair and scratched the stubble on his chin again. "I don't know. But this _is _Hermione."

Harry looked down at the cuff of his sleeve. He had been steadily pulling a loose thread out of his sweater. "Yeah," he chuckled mirthlessly, "she tends to know what she's talking about."

"But what happened to her otter?" Ron asked, an extremely sullen look on his face.

Lupin answered hesitantly. "An emotional event or similar upheaval can cause one's Patronus to change. It's likely that her transformation to a vampire is the reason…"

Lupin's voice trailed off. He was beating around the bush. Harry knew why her Patronus had changed; it was obvious. Tonks's Patronus had changed ever since she had –

"It's Malfoy's," Harry said emotionlessly. "She's in love with him."

Ron's head snapped up in disbelief. "What? But - no! How can that be?"

Harry sighed and looked to Lupin, who nodded in agreement. "I don't know, Ron. But I'm sure that it is."

"Well, then, he must have given her Amortentia or something, right?" Ron gave Lupin a pleading look, wanting him to confirm his thoughts. "Right?"

Lupin slowly shook his head. "A potion wouldn't affect her Patronus."

Ron ran his hands through his hair, trying to voice the numerous thoughts and objections running around in his head. "But how – She can't possibly – This is just insane! Maybe it's someone else's? Why would _Malfoy's _Patronus be a fox?"

Lupin looked up at the ceiling in thought. "Oh, I don't know… it seems to fit, doesn't it? Sly, cunning-"

Ron gritted his teeth and cut him off. "Back-stabbing, bottom-feeding, carcass-eating…"

"Professor Lupin," Harry continued, amidst Ron's grumbling. "It's a lot to swallow. I don't… I don't quite know if I can believe all of this. I want to – I _need _to see her."

"Well," Lupin answered. "We'll see her soon enough."

They all sat in thought for a few more minutes.

"Silver," Lupin said, breaking the tense silence.

Harry and Ron looked up, confused.

"It weakens vampires and causes them acute pain, deteriorating them physically in the process." Lupin was speaking as if addressing a classroom of students. "We should see if we can alter the standard binding spells to include a portion of silver in the ropes. A variation on binding charms shouldn't be difficult to do."

Ron cried out, offended. "I'm not going to hurt her!"

Lupin raised his eyebrows. "What will you do if she tries to feed from you?"

"But..." Harry said, aghast, "But it's Hermione!"

Oooooooooooooooooooooooo

Draco was right. Words couldn't describe it. She felt a mix of awe-inspired wonderment and tranquility. The dark, desolate landscape, the complete isolation, and the absolute beauty; Hermione felt at peace. She shifted against the rock that she was leaning on and dug her toes into the soft, grey dust of the moon's surface. It was coarser than sand and crunched under her feet.

Draco's pinky finger linked into hers, and she squeezed it lightly.

"Thank you for bringing me here," she whispered. Her voice was the only sound.

"Anything," he answered and rested his chin on the top of her head.

She looked up at the bright blue hemisphere covered with swirls of white in the middle their dark black horizon. Her lips parted in amazement. She felt almost god-like, and the thought sobered her. This much power couldn't be good. There were many who had been corrupted from the lure of Voldemort's knowledge and how he seemed to conquer death. Her thoughts drew her gaze down to the Hufflepuff cup laying in the dust.

Draco noticed the direction of her glance. "What are you going to do with that… thing? I know you can't tell me what it is, but I can feel the evil pulsing from it. It…" His voice cracked slightly. "It makes me think things. I don't want to be near it." He paused, and then added, "I don't want it near you, either."

She delicately wrapped her hands around the stem of the cup and raised it to her eye level, in line with the earth, blocking her view of Europe and Africa.

"I thought I'd need Harry and Ron to destroy it. We used a summoning circle for the last one; it was complicated and exhausting." She peered at the cup, gleaming in the light reflected from earth. "I wonder..."

She concentrated her power on the cup, on the piece of soul within the cup. She probed with her mind, prodding Voldemort's presence, and gasped as the evil within it reached out to her.

"Put it down," Draco said, his voice trembling with half-concealed fear.

"Wait."

Her will was stronger. This was a broken piece, a shard, nothing more. She felt herself surrounding it. It had nowhere to go. It was trapped. It had already confined itself to this object long ago. She focused on the soul, encasing it, surrounding it with her presence, and squeezed. It felt the threat. But after failing to fight back successfully, it began to panic. She narrowed its space, continuing to squeeze it with her will, with her magic. It tried to escape, but it couldn't, since there was nowhere for it to go. Her arms began shaking as she pushed against it, and she felt sweat break out across her forehead.

"Hermione…" Draco said, sounding worried.

But she didn't dare stop. She pressed it, pushed against it. It had no room. It was caving in on itself. Suddenly, there was a faint scream and it ceased to exist. The cup blackened and crumpled in on itself as if it was a burnt piece of paper. Panting, she dropped it. It fell to the dust with an unceremonious thud.

"It's destroyed," she said. Her voice lifted in surprise at her display of power.

She hadn't realized how on edge Draco had been since they had broken into Gringotts until she felt his body relax next to hers.

"It doesn't affect you?" he asked, still staring at the blackened remains.

"Not that much."

Draco shuddered and then leaned back against the rock they were sitting against. "Are there any more of those?"

"Unbreakable Vow," she said, tonelessly.

Draco lifted an eyebrow and looked down at her. "I wonder if that would still be effective, now that you're a vampire."

"We'll find someone else to be your Pygmy Puff, thanks."

Draco's chuckle vibrated from his chest, and she nuzzled into him. Their pale skin was highlighted by a bluish-white glow. Turning up to Draco, she studied him as he gazed at the view. The contours of his nose and the hardness of his jaw, framed by his blond hair, which was luminescent from the lighting, made him look ethereal. As he noticed her staring at him, he turned to face her. His eyes glittered silver-white and became slightly hooded as they, in turn, gazed at her. As he studied her, his mouth slid into a small and close-lipped smile that looked utterly content. She leaned her head on his shoulder again, and he wrapped his arm around her, drawing her into his bare chest. The only sound was a soft growling.

They turned back; their eyes watched the dark line, marking the divide between night and day as it moved across the continents with the earth's slow rotation. Squinting, she could see the small triangle of the British Isles just to the left of a cloud swirl. In a few hours, the black shadow would engulf England, and they could go back to meet with Harry and Ron.

"I wonder what they're thinking right now," she pondered out loud.

"Who? Scar-head and Weasel?" Draco asked, seeming to know exactly what was bothering her.

Hermione looked up to see him smirking. "Is that what you call them?"

"No. Those are simply the names appropriate for your ears."

Her eyes flashed with anger and his grin widened at her reaction.

"Appropriate?" Her tone was half amused, half annoyed.

"Oh, come on. How many choice four letter words do you think are coming out of _their _mouths right now?"

She turned to gaze at the earth again, worried. "Do you think they're mad at me?"

Draco's eyebrows rose. "Not at all. It's me they'll want to kill."

"But you didn't want—" she protested.

He snorted, cutting her off. "They won't believe you."

She drew her legs in and wrapped her arms around them, setting her chin on her knees. "I guess not."

They sat in silence a bit more. He touched his finger to the base of her spine, and barely grazing her skin, traced the line of her backbone. Goosebumps spread all over her body and he smiled as she arched her back and let out a soft yelp.

"Tell me something, Hermione."

"Mmm?" Smiling, she turned to face him, resting her cheek on her knees.

"How did they catch you? You'd evaded capture for so long, you must have been having a really off day."

Her smile immediately fell.

"Hey," he said, stroking her hair. "I didn't mean…"

"No, it's okay. It's just… it was Padma."

"Padma?" he said, with an odd look on his face.

She nodded. "I never saw it coming. I had no reason to think that she would turn on us. I mean, she was never the same since Parvati was killed, but I never would have thought..." Draco cupped her face in his hand and lightly stroked her cheek with his thumb. She smiled, despite herself. "She never would betray us if she were in her right mind. At least... I would hope not."

"She wasn't."

Hermione's eyes snapped to his. "You saw her?"

He looked at her for a few seconds, opened his mouth slightly, and then shut it again. She saw his Adam's apple move as he swallowed. "I killed her."

She felt her stomach knot, but she didn't move.

He looked down, wary of meeting her eyes, and continued hurriedly. "They brought her to me the night before they brought you… for execution. She looked as if she had been tortured briefly, but I guess they saw that she was unable to understand what they wanted, let alone answer their questions." He took a breath and looked up at Hermione, searchingly. "She just stood there, she didn't say anything. She seemed to welcome death… smiling when she saw my fangs. I didn't…" he paused. "It wasn't painful for her."

Hermione didn't say anything. Part of her was relieved, knowing that it _was _a kind of insanity that had claimed Padma towards the end of her life and not a change of heart that caused her betrayal. But mostly, she was just sad, knowing that her friend had died. She would tell Harry and Ron. Both of the Patil women had been incredible fighters. They deserved to be honored in death.

Draco laced his fingers into her hair. He was still stroking her cheekbone with his other hand.

Hermione flicked her eyes to his. He killed Padma. And how many others? What else had he been doing for them? She turned away, not wanting to look at him anymore, and exhaled in disgust. She had been so naïve. Why should she be surprised? Why else would she have been brought to him if he wasn't killing and torturing for them? Distracted by their happy reunion, the wondrous sights, and her seemingly limitless power, she had avoided it—this role he had been playing for the Death Eaters.

She had been deluding herself.

"Hermione?" she heard Draco's voice, soft and cautious. His thumb now rested on her temple, and pressed down slightly. Firmly, she removed his hand, not wanting him to touch her anymore, and lifted her eyes to meet his. They looked pained.

"How could you…" her voice trembled with anger. "How many people have you killed?"

His nostrils flared as he exhaled. "I don't know."

"That many?" she said, nearly shaking.

He nodded, wordlessly, his eyes never leaving hers.

"I'm a vampire. I feed. They'd be killed anyway, Hermione."

"But you said that we could live off of animals."

"We can. It's enough to survive, but... the blood won't sate you. Eventually you'll go mad and feed from humans whether you want to or not. It's better to-" She saw a muscle twitch in his jaw. "It's better to stay in control, and human blood helps with that. At least then you can choose who you're feeding from."

Hermione stood up and turned on him with a disgusted look on her face. "So what have you been doing for them all this time?"

His gaze didn't waver, and he paused before answering. "You know what I've been doing."

She felt bile rise in her throat.

"Who?" She didn't want to know, but she couldn't stop herself from asking.

He took a deep breath; there was a resigned look on his face. "Wizards who couldn't be _Imperiused_, Muggles, the occasional Order member, others who tried to resist, a few Death Eaters, some Muggleborns…" His voice trailed off.

"Dean Thomas? Sturgis Podmore?" she said accusingly. They had gone missing a while back.

He nodded.

"Ginny?" she said in a choked voice.

They stared at each other. And she watched him. Hoping, praying… and after what seemed like an eternity, he gave a very small nod of his head in the affirmative.

"Aaaaaah!" she shrieked into the empty blackness, and then she rounded on him, her voice cold. "Did you torture them, too?"

He stood up and glared down at her, hurt and angry. "Of course not!" He paused and looked to the side. "Not intentionally, anyway. I try to… make it quick and painless - as much as I'm able. Some had been tortured so badly that they were begging for death."

"So you're a _merciful _murderer?" she retorted bitterly.

He looked as if she had slapped him, and she stood up and raised her voice, spurred on by his shock and hurt.

"You were never able to kill anyone when you were human! Ever! Not even while fighting!"

She couldn't believe the level of his descent into depravity, and it both infuriated her and caused her to despair. She felt like he was slipping away from her. That he wasn't the person she'd thought he was.

"What happened to you?" she said, choking back an angry sob. She still loved him; she couldn't help it.

He looked out at the earth again. The shadow had almost engulfed England. "Hunger. It's hard to control."

"That's it? Hunger?" Her voice sounded hollow.

He turned to her and she was taken aback by the sadness in his eyes.

"I'm so sorry, Hermione," he said tenderly.

"It's not _me_you need to apologize to," she ground out.

"But it _is_. I never should have let you…" He clenched his jaw. "I should have… I don't know. I should have left and then found a way to get you out. Anything else." He turned to her, with a pleading expression on his face. "Don't you see, Hermione? I know what I am. I've accepted it. I don't go out looking to kill people, but this is what I am. And now…" His eyes bored into hers. "This is what _you _are. This is what you have to accept."

She shook her head dismissively. "But _surely _you can—"

"Do you remember feeding from Goyle?"

Her eyes widened in surprise. That night was a blur of images and sensations. She remembered the content and sated feeling afterwards, but before then... "But that was Goyle! If it was someone else, I wouldn't have—"

He was shaking his head.

"Stop it! There's no way that I would hurt—"

"You don't understand. You can barely remember attacking Goyle. If Potter would have walked in that room, he would have met the same fate. That's what it's like at the height of blood lust. You're reduced to your basest desires."

"Eating and fucking," she answered tonelessly.

"Do you know what else you did to Goyle?"

She felt all the color drain from her face. "No," she whispered, knowing that he was probably right. _Gods! She could barely remember!_

"Yes," he said and he held her face in his hands. "Hermione, I love you. You know that."

Weakly, she nodded and he slid his hands down the smooth skin of her neck, past her bare shoulders, and finally rested them on her upper arms.

"And look what I did to you," Draco continued. She looked up at him, partly in shock from her revelation. He leaned forward and said slowly, "After I had _just fed_."

"But—" she said, feeling defeated.

"Do you think that you can control your hunger better than me? Like how that…" his eyes darkened, "thing affected me more than it did you?"

"I… I just can't imagine myself attacking Harry or Ron. Do you think it's possible… that I have more control?" She could hear the childish hope in her voice, and cringed.

"Anything is possible, Hermione. But I wouldn't count on it." He turned his eyes to the slowly rotating planet on their horizon, and hers followed. "We can go back now."

She nodded.

"We'll have to feed before seeing them."

"Okay."

"Humans, Hermione."

At this, her eyes flashed in protest, but before she could retort, he Disapparated them both.

**Chapter end notes:**

So a question to all the readers: I've continued the alternate ending - where Hermione is a vampire, and the original ending - where she remains human. I'll label each chapter with alternate/original, so that it won't be confusing, like I did for this chapter.

Anyway, I'm trying to decide whether to post the chapters in series (first do the alternate ending, complete it, then go on to the original ending) or in parallel (a chapter from the alternate, a chapter from the original, and so on). My thought was that it might be interesting to see how both stories progress, and how they contrast as the results of Hermione's decision play out, and that it would be better to do so in parallel.

But when trying to decide on how to break up the chapters, I started wondering if it might be too jarring that way. Too confusing. Would it disrupt the flow of the story?

What do you guys think? Parallel? In series? Why?


	6. Chapter 6  Alternate ending

**Chapter notes:**

The readers have spoken!  
>It seems the majority prefer posting in series. A few thought parallel would be interesting if the chapters came up soon enough, but I can't make any promises on that. Between me and my betas and the validators, that's at least 4 different people the posting will be dependent on. So I'll continue with the alternate and do the original when it's over.<p>

**Chapter 6 - alternate ending**

Draco looked up at the full moon above them and counted to ten. He wished the two of them could just stay up there, away from everything else. Away from the hunger. Away from the war.

"Listen, Hermione. You can't just feed off of animals. I'm telling you right now, if you don't feed off of a human before they come, you'll attack them."

Hermione gritted her teeth. "But that doesn't make any _sense_! If you've eaten, you're full! You have something in your stomach! You're not hungry!"

Draco clenched his jaw. They'd already been through this several times since they had returned to Earth. The repetitiveness of the argument was driving him up the wall. He couldn't believe how stubborn she was being.

"There is a difference between being _full_ and being _sated_. When you are sated, you can control yourself to some extent. When you are full, you digest what is in your stomach when something tastier comes along. Why do you think I attacked you that night?"

She looked out across the field, annoyed beyond belief.

Draco turned her so that she was facing him again. "And that is exactly what will happen to you if you don't feed. Trust me, I've been there."

Hermione shrugged out of his grip angrily, and her voice rose. "I'm _not_ going to kill an innocent person every time I want to meet with someone! And I can't believe you _just did_!"

Draco spread his arms out in front of him. "This is what you chose, Hermione! If you're not going to be realistic, then I have to be. We can't count on binding spells; I've never tried them! Who's to say that we won't just free ourselves and continue attacking? Who do you think will stop you when—"

The two tensed upon hearing the unmistakable sound of Apparition on the other side of the field.

They could hear Harry and Ron talking to each other.

"I'm going to kill him, Harry."

"He's already dead," Harry quipped.

"Not dead enough."

Draco smirked down at her. "You're right; I shouldn't have fed off of that human."

Hermione huffed and stalked towards the voices. Draco followed her with long strides.

They heard Harry admonish Ron. "Let's hear what she has to say. She wasn't able to explain everything in her letter."

Ron's voice sounded extremely agitated. "They're late. There's no way that she would be in love or turn into a… a… He must have done something to her."

"Oh, if only they knew," Draco purred in her ear.

"Shut it."

Ron's angry mumbling continued. "-completely out of character. How could she possibly tolerate his ferrety, inbred presence? Maybe this whole thing is -"

Harry's voice didn't sound any calmer. "Ron, just stop it. I don't like it any more than you and I'm sick of this conversation. She'll let us know what she's doing. Look, they're here already. We can talk with her about it now."

Two male forms approached in the moonlight. Hermione saw one of the figures jump and wave.

"Hermione!" Harry called out across the field.

"Not one for subtlety, is he?" Draco drawled.

She wasn't listening. A huge grin spread across her face and she started to sprint towards Harry and Ron. She missed them! But before she could gain much ground, Draco caught her arm and jerked her back.

He whispered to her furiously. "Hermione, please. I know you don't agree with me, but isn't it better to err on the side of caution?" When it appeared that she was just going to shrug him off in anger again, he continued, "Listen. If you don't attack them, you would have proved me wrong. I'll never feed off another human again. Ever."

She drew in a breath. The look in his eyes was so caring. When it came down to it, he was just worried about her.

She would listen to him. And she would prove him wrong.

"Okay," she agreed.

"We'll go together, slowly. It's better that you creep up on their smell rather than let it overwhelm you."

"Bugger him," she heard Ron curse under his breath. He must have seen Draco pull her back. "Where does he get off? Just because he's a murdering animal doesn't mean she is."

Hermione called out across the field, "It's okay, Ron. Just stay there. We're coming."

They saw Ron turn to Harry in surprise and heard him whisper, "Can she hear me from all the way over there?"

At this, a smug grin spread on Draco's face. "Ye-es," he answered, his voice ringing out over the field in a sing-song voice.

They heard Ron swear again as Draco and Hermione approached them slowly. She could smell them now, and to her chagrin, was not unaffected. Their features became illuminated in the moonlight and she could see Harry's glasses reflecting back at her. He shifted the weight on his feet and shoved his hands in his pockets, waiting. She wanted to run out and hug them, kiss them, and… and…

She sucked in a breath. She could _literally_ taste their scents on her tongue, and she heard the pace of their heartbeats increase as they approached. She felt an urge to feed almost instantaneously. Draco was right; drinking from that deer wasn't helping her. But, that was all right. It was a matter of willpower. She could summon the control. There was _no way_ she would feed from her best friends.

It was a simple case of mind over matter.

Harry and Ron were studying the two. Glancing at Draco with hostile expressions on their faces, and back at her with tender, worried, and… wary expressions. At a distance of roughly ten feet, Draco pulled her back to a stop.

She looked up, and he gave an imperceptible shake of his head. Feeling resigned, she kept the distance that Draco had deemed safe. It was upsetting, but she supposed she should be cautious for now.

"Let her come, Malfoy," Ron barked.

Hermione looked up to see him seething after eyeing the exchange between her and Draco. "You don't have to talk as if I'm not here," Hermione answered. "And he's keeping me away for your safety."

"We trust you, Hermione," Ron tried to persuade her. "We know you'd never hurt us."

"It's not a matter of trust, Ron," she answered. "It's better to be cautious."

Ron's jaw clenched. Harry's face was expressionless. She found that Ron's uncontrolled bursts of emotion were exciting her.

Draco flashed a set of white teeth in a humorless smile. "Amusing as it would be to let her have a go at you two, there's a war to win, isn't there?" Hermione glared at him and he cleared his throat. "Apropos the war…" He flung a sack at Harry, who caught it in mid-air without blinking.

The sudden movement made her blood race, and she watched the muscles of Harry's arm contract under his skin while he untied the bag. Draco began to rub tiny soothing circles on the back of her neck.

"Sorry about that…" he whispered into her ear.

Ron eyed the sack and looked mutinously back at Draco's offending hand, resting on the back of her neck. "What did he do to you, Hermione? You can tell us."

She sighed. "It was my decision, Ron. And quite frankly, I forced him to do it."

She saw Draco wince at her choice of words.

Ron snorted and cursed under his breath. "Right."

Draco's fingers tensed, and then he resumed his massaging circles. She could hear Ron's blood pumping furiously through his veins; his anger was obviously rising along with his pulse rate. Wanting to avoid a fight, she said, "Look inside the bag, will you?"

Ron's scent was overpowering. She closed her eyes and took a breath. _Control._ It was all about control.

Harry wasn't paying attention to their squabbling. He was looking at the crumpled, blackened Hufflepuff cup.

"Fuck me," he said dumbly. "When did you break into Gringotts?"

Ron looked curiously inside the bag.

"A few hours ago," she answered, trying not to think about how warm and inviting their flesh looked.

"A few _hours_ ago?" Ron said incredulously. "But it was daylight! How—?"

She couldn't help it, she glanced furtively at Ron's throat. "We Apparated."

Harry's eyebrows rose, clearly impressed. "You _Apparated _into Gringotts? That's supposed to be impossible."

"Into the Malfoy vault," Draco spoke, clearly enjoying their dumbstruck expressions.

"Blo-o-dy hell!" Ron exclaimed, and looked at the cup. "But then—bugger me! Hermione! It took the three of us fifteen hours of non-stop chanting to destroy the last one." She couldn't take her eyes off of Ron. The sound of the flow of his blood was filling her ears. His excitement was arousing her. She felt herself being pulled to him. Both Harry and Draco were watching her. Embarrassed, she leaned into Draco and closed her eyes briefly, trying to inhale his scent and clear her senses of Ron's and Harry's. She felt Draco's arm circle protectively around her.

"Steady…" His breath caressed her ear.

"That's," Ron continued, "that's impossible!"

"This is what I wanted to explain to you," she said, bringing her gaze back to his eyes. She could feel saliva pooling in her mouth and she swallowed. "We're more powerful than human wizards. Much more. With Draco and me leading off an attack, we can penetrate the wards—"

"You can take down the wards?" Ron exclaimed, flabbergasted.

She saw Harry grab Ron's arm and squeeze it. Squeeze his flesh. _Flesh._"Calm down," Harry whispered to him quietly.

"—and take them by surprise," she continued, forcing herself to avert her eyes. "We could finish this war within the week. That's why I did it. We'll go in, kill Nagini, and then kill Voldemort."

Malfoy flinched at the mention of Voldemort's name, and Harry smirked, but she continued, "They won't be expecting a thing. So long as they don't realize they're being attacked by vampires, we'll have an advantage."

"Nagini? That repulsive snake?" Draco asked.

Harry glanced at Malfoy, who was looking disgusted.

Ignoring him, Harry turned back to Hermione who he noticed was struggling not to not look at his throat, and asked, "He doesn't know?"

Draco answered, "She won't tell me. You all made the Unbreakable Vow." He paused; she could feel Draco's eyes boring into her, but all she could hear was Ron's heart and the thrum of his blood. All she could smell was his blood. She turned her head away from them and took a deep breath. It didn't help. Draco spoke again, "Have you tried that binding spell, Potter?"

Even though both Harry and Draco were watching her, she brought her eyes back to Ron. He was completely oblivious, holding up the cup, and gawking at it slightly. "Merlin, Hermione! How did you stay undetected at Gringotts long enough to find the vault?"

Having been completely entranced by the veins and muscles in Ron's pale neck, she jumped at the sound of her name. "It was actually pretty easy." She concentrated for a few seconds, and then transformed into Bellatrix Lestrange.

Ron yelped, dropping the cup. "Warn a bloke, will you?"

"Ron," Harry said in a low voice, "you need to say calm."

"Calm? Who are you kidding?" he said, gesturing to Hermione.

His heart was thudding rapidly, as was Harry's who had also been shocked to see his godfather's murderer suddenly appear before him. She furrowed her brow and transformed back into herself. They were both staring at her in wonderment. "But don't you see? Just think of the possibilities. We don't even _know_ what our limits are."

She could feel her hunger and desire for the two starting to overwhelm her. She had to say something, anything to distract from the blood pulsing underneath their skin.

"Why didn't you bring Remus? He should have been here as well." She didn't even feel like she was talking; it was as if someone else was. She was so intent on the pulse of the arteries in Ron's throat.

Harry pointed up at the full moon. "He wanted to come."

She started gravitating towards Ron again. Draco gently pulled her back as her voice went unnaturally soft, "Oh, right, I should have known." His flesh looked so warm, inviting. She needed his blood. She couldn't think of anything else besides the warm liquid and his yielding skin. She felt her breathing become heavier, more labored. Ron finally noticed how she was looking at him and he shifted uncomfortably under her hungry gaze.

"It's…it's okay, Ron. I'm not going to bite you." Ron looked relieved, but Harry was eyeing her skeptically. Draco resumed massaging the back of her neck with his fingers, rubbing slowly. She rocked back and forth slightly with the movement of his fingers, shutting her eyes briefly.

Draco's voice cut through her thoughts, "Make sure that binding spell works, yeah?"

Harry glared back at him. "We'll try it out on you first then, not her."

"I wouldn't dream of anything different, Potter," he drawled.

Her eyes snapped open as Harry swiftly drew his wand. "_Incarcerous Argentum!_"

Silver ropes shot out of Harry's wand and wrapped around Draco's arms and torso. He grunted at the pain, and fell to a kneeling position. The silver ropes were burning through Draco's shirt, cutting into his flesh, and he hissed. She didn't know why the sight of Draco on his knees, bound and in pain aroused her so, but it did. She felt her fangs extend. It was too much. The smell, the warmth, the taste, the desire. Blood was pumping _everywhere._

"He really looks like he's in pain," she heard Ron say. She turned back to him. Delicious.

"It fucking hurts, Weasley. Not as bad as the – nnnnnggghhh! – Cruciatus, but it's pretty damn close."

She wouldn't hurt him, just a little sip. Just a little…

"I think this would work," Malfoy was saying through clenched teeth. "She was right, the silver—oh, _shite._ Weasley, look –"

In a flash, Hermione appeared in front of Ron. "Blimey, Hermione! You move fast," he said, not without trepidation in his voice.

Tall, muscular, young, supple, yielding. Slowly, she pressed her body against his. His body was heating up, and his heart was beating so loudly in his chest it was all she could hear. All for her. She slid her palms up his chest and around his shoulders, pulling him down. He was deliciously aroused, she could sense it. She snaked her hand down to feel his prick through his trousers, and Ron whimpered.

Ron put his hands on her waist, not quite sure if he wanted to hold her closer or push her away.

_Just a sip,_ she didn't need much, just a taste. Relishing his closeness, she licked the nape of his neck and felt him shudder in her strong embrace.

Briefly, she thought she heard someone calling her name as she opened her mouth and sunk her teeth into his flesh.

ooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Ron gave a yell in pain and disbelief, which turned into a groan, and his body sagged bonelessly against her. Harry was watching the whole scene, entranced. Hermione was rubbing Ron, eliciting a series of whimpering moans from him while his body trembled. He couldn't believe this was happening. She was also giving little moans of pleasure and slowly grinding herself against him. It was all very surreal. Surely Hermione wouldn't hurt him? He could clearly see that she was getting hungry earlier, but she wouldn't drain him _completely_.

Would she?

Harry looked down at Malfoy for confirmation of his thoughts. He had stopped struggling with his bonds in order to watch the scene playing out before him. There was a very self-satisfied smirk on his face.

"God, I _love_ being right."

Harry couldn't understand what Malfoy found so amusing about the situation. Still in shock, he pulled on her shoulder; surely she could be reasoned with. He really didn't want to cause her the pain that Malfoy was in.

"Hermione?"

Ron gasped, and his eyes rolled back as he clutched onto Hermione's undulating body. She gave a moan of pleasure, which Harry felt in his cock.

"Hermione?" he said louder, and pulled on her shoulder more violently.

"Don't bother," Malfoy grunted from below. "Just—nnnnngh! Hold on, I'll be out of these in a—"

Hermione turned to face him and he felt ice flood his veins.

"Yes, Harry?" she answered, distractedly.

Her eyes were no longer the hazel he knew so well. They were gleaming brightly, partly gold, partly amber. Inhuman. She stared at him in hunger and lust; there was no sign of his best mate from school. Wasn't she in there anymore?

"Hermione," his voice sounded more panicky than he would care to admit. "Hermione, you could have seriously hurt Ron. You have to stop."

She was licking the blood from around her mouth with sensual relish. As she drew nearer, he felt a rush of fear and adrenaline as he realized what she was about to do. He put his arms out to keep her away, but she was much too strong and slowly closed in on his throat.

Harry looked over at Ron, who was staring at her dumbstruck, with a hand clamped over his bleeding neck, and sporting a very prominent erection.

"Ron, she's too strong, you have to–uhhhh."

A sharp pain marked where she had bit at the juncture of Harry's neck and shoulder, and she pressed her lithe body against his. To his horror, he felt himself harden as she rubbed herself against his groin, helping to turn her bite from pain into pleasure. He felt hot and yet he shivered from the feel of her soft, wet, mouth on his neck. He couldn't remember what he was trying to do. All he knew was that Hermione was writhing against him in a most decadent way, and he moaned with her movements as she slithered over his body.

Suddenly, she threw her head back with a hiss, and he felt cold air where she had once been rubbing up against him. His hands numbly fell to his sides. Harry felt just as gormless as Ron looked.

Arm trembling with exertion, Malfoy was pressing the silver ropes against the back of her shirt.

"Down, girl," he said with a smirk. She rounded on him, growling, and knocked the ropes out of his hand.

Malfoy looked up at Harry and Ron, "Much as I would love to see how this would have ended, I think the meeting's over."

Ron looked dumbly at Hermione, who was snarling at Malfoy. "What are you going to do to her?"

At the sound of his voice, Hermione reared on Ron again, hungrily eyeing the blood still streaming from the wounds she'd inflicted. Malfoy grabbed her by the waist and pulled her back to him. She struggled to get free, and clawed at the air in front of Ron, eyes never leaving the blood dribbling down from the bite.

He gave a feral grin. "I'll distract her."

Hermione succeeded in extracting herself from Draco's hold and lunged at Ron and Harry, who jumped back. But before she could reach them, Malfoy tackled her to the ground while she growled and struggled against him. She turned around to get at the source of the scent of the blood in the air, reaching out, snarling and grabbing at them. Not without considerable effort, Draco caught her shoulder, twisted her around and slammed her down on her back. He pinned her down and began ripping at her clothes, snarling and exposing her nakedness.

"Harry!" Ron exclaimed, his face pale. "He's–he's raping her!" He raised his wand, but Harry grabbed his hand and forced it down. They watched Draco force her legs apart and thrust violently into her. Ron flinched. She threw her head back and gave an animalistic yell.

"No," Harry said, his voice soft with disbelief, "No, he's not."

Malfoy looked up from Hermione's writhing body, and she clawed at his back, trying to bring him down to her. He gave Harry another feral grin as he thrust once, twice more into her while she arched her back and writhed underneath him. His fangs were out and his eyes were glittering with lust and hunger, much in the same way that Hermione's had when he had interrupted her feeding from Ron.

"Leave," he growled, "I smell your blood."

Harry forced himself to look away, but was unable to block out the grunts, moans and shrieks from their vicious copulating. Ron was staring at them in dumbstruck horror.

"Ron."

He was still staring at them.

"Ron!" Harry raised his voice.

Slowly, Ron turned to face him, mouth half open. He seemed to be both aroused and sick to his stomach from the sight and the sounds coming from the ground before him.

"Let's go." Harry placed his hand on his friend's shoulder, and they Apparated onto the top step just outside the door of number twelve Grimmauld Place. Harry turned the knob and pushed the door open. Here they were, worrying about Hermione being in love with Malfoy. After what they had just seen, he wished that that was all they had to worry about. He took a few steps inside and then staggered to the left, leaned over, and vomited.

**Chapter end notes:**

Also, I wanted to make an announcement. Much as I would love to, I'm not going to write fanfic anymore. When I'm done with this story, that will be it. I've learned a lot from fanfiction. It's made me a better writer, and a more discerning reader. But writing takes up a lot of time, time that I just can't give at this point.  
>The thing is, I've got another WIP that needs a lot of work and it's painful to let it sit for years untouched, so I was wondering if anyone would be interested in taking it on. I put a notice up on the Owl Post, but not that many people have seen it, so I thought I'd put up a note here. I really want the story to be told. If someone wants to take it over, they can claim sole authorship, or say that it's based off of my idea, I don't really care. Once someone takes it over, it's their baby, and I won't interfere (unless they want me to, I'd totally be willing to brainstorm if they wanted me to, it's up to them).<br>It's a Dramione, 7th year at Hogwarts, horcrux hunting, MA, it's never really clear which side Draco is on until the end (at least, that's how I tried to write it so far). I've got about 50 - 60 K written already. Some parts are written better than others. Some parts need to be rewritten because I changed my mind about how things should go (but again, it's up to the person who takes it over to decide what they want to do). I pretty much know how the entire plot will progress, and how the story will end. The new author is welcome to follow that, or change it. As I said, it will be their baby.  
>If anybody is interested, send me a note and I'll write up a summary and send it off to you. If the summary is interesting, and you'd like to finish up the story, I'll send off the whole kit and kaboodle.<p> 


	7. Chapter 7  Alternate ending

**Chapter notes:**

An apology to all the vampire purists: cold doesn't do it for me. So in this world, vampires have a pulse, sweat, breathe and are a toasty 98.6.

**Chapter 7 – Alternate ending**

Hermione lay on top of Draco, silently watching the bruises on his wrists disappear as she delicately released her hold on him. Similarly, the claw marks all over his body healed and closed. A last quivering tremor ran through her from their animalistic struggle for dominance. She had dug her fingers into the earth, into his back, into his buttocks, into his hair as he mercilessly thrust into her, forcing shrieks of ecstasy from her mouth.

Now all was calm and quiet, a stark contrast to the frenzied mayhem of a few moments ago. She was lying on top of him, her head resting on his chest. His breaths came in and out slowly, deeply, and she rose and fell with the cadence of his breathing. He was still inside her, but starting to soften until he finally slipped out along with his seed.

Slowly, the events of the night returned to her. She remembered why he had attacked her in the first place, and felt ashamed. She waited for him to say something, but he continued to gently hold her. Finally, she broke the silence.

"You were… you were right, and I'm sorry, Draco. For judging you, for calling you a murd—"

His fingers encased the back of her skull, tenderly. "Shh. It's okay. I was never angry at you."

It was that simple, and she loved him for it.

He stroked her spine with the tips of his fingers, making her shiver whenever he would reach a ticklish spot. However, the bliss was short-lived, and the horror of what she had done came back to her.

_God!_What she had done to Harry and Ron! What they had seen! A feeling of dread sat in the pit of her stomach as she wondered what they must think of her now. Reality came crashing down around her and she was only now beginning to understand the implications. Life was truly different. There were too many things that would change and she had taken them for granted. Tears formed in her eyes.

She propped herself up on her elbows and said with a trembling voice, "Draco, I'm… I'm a monster."

He put an arm behind his head and studied her thoughtfully, contemplating what to say next.

After a pause, he said, "Yes, you are." She bit her lip and stifled a sob. He reached up and tenderly wiped away the lone tear making its way down her cheek.

In a voice much softer, he continued, "And so am I."

She looked at him again, studying the caring expression on his face, searching his eyes that shone and glittered in the moonlight. He rested his hand on her upper arm and gave it a quick squeeze.

"The sooner you accept what you are, the easier this existence will be for you. Next time, we'll silver ourselves right away." His voice sounded more positive than she felt. "That actually worked much better than I thought it would."

She looked down at Draco and furrowed her brow. "Why didn't _you _have trouble controlling yourself tonight, like you did around me?"

"Firstly, I fed. From a human." She rolled off of him and sat on the ground, reluctantly accepting the truth in what he was telling her. She hugged herself, and hiccuped a sob, finally crying in earnest. She wouldn't be able to be around anyone anymore. Not her family, not her friends-

"Hermione," Draco said softly, interrupting her thoughts, "I'm sorry. I know you don't want to hear it, but animals aren't enough. And secondly," he traced her spine again with his fingers and she shivered, "you're different. I've always wanted you."

"But I don't," she sniffed, "I don't _want _Harry and Ron like that. I don't want…"

Draco smiled; his ego couldn't help itself.

"You're pulled more to a male's blood than a female's. To a young person's than an old person's. Although…" his eyes darkened, "the thought of you taking a female…" Her head snapped around to look at him and he smiled wolfishly up at her.

Her voice lowered. "Will it always be this way?"

Draco's eyes traveled over her face, and his smile fell. "Yes."

She released a trembling sigh, afraid she would start to cry again. Draco lifted his hand to stroke her jaw and said, "You'll get better at controlling it, but only in the sense that you'll begin to understand yourself. The danger tonight was that you underestimated your hunger. You didn't think you would hurt them." His hand fell limply to the ground. "That's what I kept telling myself when you were brought to me. I should have known better."

"But Slughorn had a vampire at that Christmas party," she protested weakly.

Draco turned onto his side to face her. "How old was he?"

She looked down at the grass between her toes, dejected, as she knew what the answer must be. "I don't know," she answered softly.

"Two to three hundred years. I've looked it up. That's when we'll develop enough control to be around humans without much danger, in the best-case scenario. We might even be able to feed off of them without killing them. In the meantime, I guess we can rely on silver to some extent." His smirk returned. "And I thought that _I_had trouble controlling myself."

She raised an eyebrow and gave him a side glance. "You say that like it's a good thing."

"You were fucking hot."

She sighed and looked up at the night, mourning the loss of her friendship to Harry and Ron, the loss of her family. She wasn't going to kill someone just so that she could be around them. And she wouldn't make Draco do it either. Her tears trickled down, landing in soft plops on the skin of her thighs and rolling down to the grass.

Draco's fingers went up and down the skin of her back, her rear, her thighs and arms, wherever he could reach. But she stayed still, listening to the crickets all around them. They sat in silence for a while, when she realized that something else had been nagging at her.

"Draco?" she asked, wiping away the last of her tears.

"Hmm?"

"Don't you think it's… unnatural? Having all this power?"

"What do you mean?"

"It's almost absurd; there's nothing to balance it. Imagine if someone like Voldemort were to become a vampire. What could we do?"

He was silent for a few moments before continuing, "I thought about that. I think that's why we've never heard of wizard vampires, and just assume that they lose their magic. Who knows? They might have propagated that myth themselves."

Hermione looked at him and said with a voice still husky from crying, "They're too powerful, and they know it, so they stay hidden. They don't want anyone to know."

Draco seemed to be formulating another thought. "I also think that people would try and hunt them down from fear alone."

"Wouldn't it be incredibly difficult to find and kill one?"

"Yeeeeees…" he said slowly, "and no. A simple sunlight projection and it's over. A first year could do it."

"But we move so fast, we'd see it coming long before it happened."

"If we could get away, and if it was night. What if someone found where you were resting during the day?"

"I guess you'd have to change your resting spot often."

He looked up at the moon. "Or go somewhere nobody else can."

She looked up at the rocky sphere glowing brightly in the night. They would be alone from now on. Like the moon. Isolated. She chuckled mirthlessly and replied, "Muggles have been there."

Draco didn't answer for a few seconds, and then said, "You're yanking my wand."

"I yanked your wand yesterday."

He barked a laugh and said, "And you yank very well."

She smiled ruefully, still feeling despondent. "It was the Americans. They landed on the moon in 1969."

The pause was longer this time while Draco digested the information, and then he cleared his throat. "There's a lot they don't tell us."

"There is," she answered, her voice lilting slightly. "But… you have forever to learn it."

Draco chuckled and then asked rhetorically, "Who wants to live forever?"*

Hermione turned to him, astonished. "But… think of all the places we could go!" She started to feel excitement creeping along the edges of her sadness as she thought of the potential that vampirism gave her, and continued, "All of the knowledge out there! All the… All the things we could do! We could watch the world grow and… and change! And evolve!"

Without missing a beat, he said, "And then what?"

She opened her mouth to reply, but had none. He had already contemplated his immortality. She had only begun to realize the impact of hers. "Do you think you would get bored of existing?"

He snaked his arm around her waist and drew her down to him again. "Not if I was with you."

She allowed herself to be pulled down and snuggled into him. "So you'd off yourself if you were alone?"

"After a time. It's not really… much of a life without the people you love. And I already miss the sunrise."

She chewed on her lip, thinking. Draco had already lost everyone that he loved. Without her, he was truly alone.

"I guess you do have a point. After some time, you'd want to move on." But she couldn't imagine herself ever getting to a stage where she would be tired of learning and exploring. To her, the world was infinite, and she wasn't even limited to earth. Who knew what she could do with her immortality? The possibilities were endless.

They lay in silence for a while longer.

Draco's voice caught in his throat. "Do you… regret your decision?"

Hermione stroked his chest, and lifted her head to look him in the eyes. He was worried. "Draco, with the two of us, the Order will be able to win this war within the week. The power we have… we can do just about anything!"

He was lazily caressing the skin of her posterior. "But we can't control ourselves, you won't be able to be with your friends like before, and you're avoiding my question." His serious tone contrasted with the almost apathetic designs his fingers were making on her backside.

Hermione exhaled, her breath of air ruffling his fringe. She tried to keep her voice even, afraid that thoughts of Harry and Ron would make her cry again. "I misjudged what it would mean to be a vampire. I didn't take your warnings seriously enough." His hand crept up to her hair and threaded into her curls. She felt him apply a slight pressure, guiding her head down so that she lay in the crook of his shoulder. She nestled into him and sighed.

"But it had to be done. It had to…" She had made the right decision, hadn't she? It was worth it. They were going to win. Of course it was the right decision. It was…

His fingers started to rub her scalp, lightly massaging it. Her eyes closed. Her heart ached, and she felt slightly hollow inside. However, knowing that Draco was here with her trying to soothe that ache allowed her to relax against him. She felt something that wasn't quite contentment, but it was pretty close.

"And now I have you," she whispered.

His body tensed and she saw his mouth form a wicked smile as his hand crept towards her juncture. "You can have me again."

His fingers teased her lightly and she gasped and squirmed and writhed against him until she felt herself getting wet.

"Yes, I guess there are certain advantages to being…uuuh!" Desire made her skin hot and her fangs extend.

Draco propped himself up on his side to watch her. His hair had fallen forward, his fringe half-hiding his gleaming eyes. The corners of his mouth twitched. "Certain advantages to… what?" He inserted a long finger into her slick warmth and she bucked, entirely forgetting what she'd wanted to say.

"Want you in me," she panted. She reached up to grab his shoulders, to bring him down to her, to be covered in his strong, warm body, but he only smiled wider as he captured her wrists and pinned her arms to the ground above her head.

"In me!" she commanded breathlessly, struggling to move and enjoying his game.

"Patience," he said teasingly. "I like to watch you."

Her body was cold, covered with goosebumps from the lack of his touch that she so desperately needed; but her core was hot and pulsing. All of the pleasure she felt was concentrated there, contrasting with the rest of her body, which had nothing. When he beckoned inside her passage with his middle finger, she tried to buck her hips as her orgasm approached, but he wouldn't let her. Instead, he pinned her legs down by crawling over her, pressing his knees into her thighs and restricting her movement even more.

He played with her, stroked her and teased her. He made her feel sensations without her being able to react to temper the feeling. She couldn't ease the tension by swiveling her hips or maneuvering his finger to a different spot when certain areas became too sensitive. It was unbearable and she growled her frustration.

"Ready?" His smile became lecherous as he leered over her.

"Yessss," she hissed back at him.

He stroked her long, slow and hard. She tilted her head back, balled her hands into fists and pointed her toes.

He paused.

"Uuuuuggggh!" she moaned in desperation.

Flashing a set of white teeth at her, he stroked again, forcing another guttural moan from her mouth as her climax ripped through her body. Finally, he released her and she bucked her hips while he continued to play with her sensitive nub. She sat up, grabbed the arm that was pleasuring her and growled at him. His eyes took in the expression of primal desire on her face and he smiled with his lips slightly parted.

"I love you like this," he whispered.

She tackled him, capturing him in an embrace and hitting the ground. They rolled on the grass with their limbs entwined and he tangled his hands in her hair, bringing her down on top of him for a searing kiss. Their tongues battled and their fangs cut each other. She tasted his blood and wanted more. He must have felt the same compulsion because he suddenly snarled and flipped her over onto her back. She hit her head on the ground and he made to thrust into her before she knocked him over again. They wrestled, grabbing at each other's limbs and panting with the exertion of trying to make the other submit.

He flipped her onto her hands and knees, but she grunted and clawed at the ground until she had got herself out from under him. She was just about to turn around when she felt his hand on her leg and he pulled her back while she dragged handfuls of dirt with her. He pinned her down from behind, pressing his body into her and scraping the line of her neck and shoulder with his fangs, drawing blood. She felt hot and sweaty as the muscles of his chest and torso slid back and forth over her shoulder blades, back and buttocks. His hands roughly cupped her breasts and squeezed while she yelled. He growled into her ear and she hissed as he rubbed his prick into the crack of her arse. She pushed backwards, wanting nothing more than for him to take her, but he pinched her nipple hard and rubbed her arse, making her insides clench with want. She needed to be filled and he was still _teasing her!_

With a shriek of frustration she kicked back and he lost his balance. She rolled them over and straddled him, finally pinning him down and digging her nails into his arms. Hair wild, eyes gleaming, fangs extended, she lifted herself up and sank down onto him. He groaned with satisfaction as she began to gyrate on top of him, and watched her undulate. Her eyes were glowing with desire, and she licked the length of her fang, basking in the heat of his gaze.

"Bite me," he said, his voice no more than a husky growl.

Wanting to do just that, she smiled, leaned down, and sank her teeth into the flesh of his neck. He half-laughed, half-moaned, and slid his hands up the sides of her thighs to move her hips back and forth along his member. As she sucked his life force and swallowed, her eyes popped open in surprise. When she had fed from him the first time it was during her transformation.

This time, it was different. It was _him_. She could sense him as she fed. He was inside her; he was all around her. She was completely encased by him and by his presence. She could feel what he was feeling, and it was unlike anything she had ever experienced before. She was overwhelmed from the coupling of his love and desire for her with what she felt for him.

_Oooooooh God!_

Her eyes rolled back and she felt her body become limp. She dug her fingers into his upper arms and tried to hold on. Drinking from him felt _good._She shuddered, and Draco lifted her pelvis and maneuvered her hips, straining to reach every inch inside of her while she lost herself in the pleasure of being filled by him, by his blood, and by his essence. It wasn't satisfying a need in the way that feeding from Ron and Harry would have, but it was intimate and sexual. He was giving a piece of himself to her. He was sharing himself with her, and she loved him even more.

All she needed, all she had wanted was to get as much of him inside her as she could, and when she did, she slid up and down his cock, riding him with violent abandon. She wanted to devour him, and was reveling in the feel of the planes and hardness of his body, the touch of his skin, the sound of his pleasure.

With a shuddering gasp, she extracted her fangs from his neck. Leaning back to an upright position, she felt the warm liquid dribble from her mouth, and licked it with her tongue. Draco's eyes lowered, watching the movement, entranced by her and what she was making him feel. She wanted to give him the same gift. She wanted to give him a piece of herself, to be inside him, to surround him. She couldn't _ever _remember feeling so unhinged and free, and yet so connected with another.

"Take from me," she whimpered. "Please."

"I will," he growled.

Swiftly, he sat up, clutching her to his chest. His gaze shifted from her eyes to the juncture of her neck and shoulder again. A half grin slowly spread across his mouth and he pressed his palm to her chest and collarbone, gently but firmly pushing her backwards. She leaned her head back, letting her hair dangle, and allowed herself to be supported by the hand he had placed in the center of her spine. She tightened the grip of her legs around his body and her arms on his shoulders to give herself more support. He pushed her chest towards him and shifted slightly underneath her.

Suddenly, he snarled and struck.

Warmth, wetness, pain, and pleasure, all at once encompassed her left breast and she _howled_. His fangs pierced her there, and his tongue laved her nipple while he suckled her. Sharp, sudden, and concentrated, desire shot through her body and she shrieked again while he drank from her there.

She writhed and slid on his length while his fingers dug into her back. Her hands threaded into his hair and she clung to his head while she moaned, trying to bring him closer so that he would devour her whole. He grabbed her hip roughly to control her movements, and she allowed him to mold her to his pelvis as he needed her. With each draw of her blood, she felt pleasure and pain, welcoming them both and wanting more. She wanted him inside her. _She_ wanted to be inside _him_. Bit by bit, she felt the lines of their conscious blur, as if they were becoming one. She could no longer tell where she ended and he began. The love and desire that coursed through her was what she felt for him, and what he felt for her. The intensity of the sensation burnt through her like a flame through paper.

She felt his movements become more forceful, more erratic and her body was jarred from the impact of his penetration each time he sank into her. The hand on her collarbone slid up towards her neck and squeezed slightly, pulling her upright. Draco released her breast with a groan and a shudder before burying his face into her chest, smearing it with the blood on his mouth. Draco turned his head to look up at her, eyes wide with awe, mouth open in wonderment. Time seemed to stand still, and all was quiet.

Suddenly, her orgasm, _his _orgasm, burst through her like a volcano. She cried out and sobbed and clung to him as stars exploded in front of her eyes. They rocked backwards and forwards, crying together, digging their fingers into each other's flesh. They shuddered and trembled in each other's arms until they could no longer remain upright and fell over onto to their sides, still intimately joined while they rode out the ecstatic rush. Their bodies shook as the last of their feverish climax ebbed. Slowly, slowly, they could finally climb down from their heights, remaining a panting jumble of limbs slick with blood, dirt, sweat, tears, fluid and semen.

_Breathe. _

_Breathe. _

_Breathe. _

She studied his eyes, which were glassy with tears and vibrant with amazement. His lips were red with her blood, his skin slick with sweat, and his face radiant in his contentment. He looked absolutely…

"Beautiful," he whispered, brushing a lock of hair out of her face.

_Gods._

"You can do that to me forever," she said, still panting, "if you like."*

"All right, then," he said as a roguish grin appeared on his face. "I will."

She breathed evenly for a few more seconds and then asked, "Did you know it would be like that?"

Wordlessly, he shook his head, looking at her as if she were the only thing that mattered in the world.

Still smiling and catching their breath, the two lay down on the ground, limbs carelessly entwined, and gazed up at the stars. Their contented growling blended in with the chirping crickets.

She traced patterns on his chest, and then caught his fingers, running the pad of her thumb over the bumps of his knuckles. She could stay like this forever with him. She could… she could.

"Draco?"

"Mmm?"

"Thanks for understanding. For helping me through this."

He brought her in close and kissed her tenderly on the forehead.

"Anything."

**Chapter end notes:**

*Taken from the cheesetastic Highlander. (The first and only one worth watching. There can be only one, as the saying goes…)


	8. Chapter 8  Alternate ending

**Chapter 8 – Alternate ending**

Back at number twelve Grimmauld Place, Ron and Harry were sitting across from one another at the kitchen table during breakfast, both ensconced in their own thoughts. Neither had slept, and neither had said anything since their encounter with Hermione and Draco last night. The two turned at the sound of footsteps descending the stairs, and Lupin appeared in the doorway, looking a bit worse for the wear.

"'Morning," Lupin said, grabbing a scone out of the basket and leaning against the wall.

Harry grunted a response and returned to staring at the table.

Lupin gave a rueful smile, noting the dark bags under their eyes and the passably healed wounds on each of their necks. "So the meeting went well, did it?"

Harry looked up and met Ron's eyes. Embarrassed, they both looked away at the same time.

Clearing his throat, Harry spoke first. "She thinks that we can attack their stronghold and defeat him with minimal casualties."

Lupin was about to take a bite his scone and froze.

"Tomorrow, or whenever we can get everyone ready," Ron added.

"Hermione said this?" Lupin asked incredulously.

Ron nodded wordlessly.

"What about the wards?"

Harry was digging his nail into a scratch on the table. "She said they weren't a problem."

"And your mission… it's finished?"

Harry and Ron both looked up. "They finished it," Ron said, still in disbelief.

"Gringotts?" Lupin's eyebrows rose in question.

"Mmm-hmm," was Harry's grudging answer.

Lupin's voice turned soft. "They're that powerful, are they?"

"Incredibly," Ron said sullenly.

Lupin was scratching his stubble in thought. "That's just… I'll have to speak with her first, but there's still the moon… Harry, how are you contacting her?"

"We could use a Patronus for short messages or an owl," he said. "Assuming she doesn't eat it," he continued testily.

Lupin looked at his two previous students and slowly sat down. "So," he asked cautiously, "what do you think of vampires?"

Harry rubbed his tired eyes. "Professor, she…" He couldn't quite form the words, as he would be admitting to what had actually happened. Shaking his head, he attempted to clear his mind of the images. "She tried to… to eat us. And she…" he flushed, and bile rose to his throat at the memory of her hand on his prick, and Malfoy fucking her.

Lupin gave him a dark look. "Good thing you practiced that binding spell. I warned you not to underestimate her."

"But it's Hermione!" Ron blurted out. Harry noticed that he didn't mention their failure to bind her.

Lupin shifted his eyes to Ron and asked, "Why do I take the Wolfsbane potion every month?"

Harry let out an exasperated sigh. "It's not the same thing!"

"Oh, but it is, Harry." Lupin said with narrowed eyes. "Make no mistake. My trigger is the full moon. Her triggers are a combination of blood, excitement, and other stimuli. The results are the same— a ruthless predator. I'm sure the presence of two healthy young men tested the limits of her control."

Harry and Ron met each others' eyes again and shifted uncomfortably in their seats.

After a pause, Ron said, "We won't be together anymore like we were." His voice cracked. "Will we?"

Lupin sighed and gave Harry and Ron a sympathetic look. "I think not. She's better off living away from humans." At this, Ron's face went white. "It's not as if you'll never see her again; you just have to be on your guard with her and realize of what she's capable."

Harry looked up at Ron. "I still can't believe that she… it really was a sacrifice, wasn't it?"

"It was," Lupin nodded slowly. "But it sounds as if it was worth it."

Harry glared at him. "Worth it? How can you be so cavalier?"

"Harry, believe me, I'm not. I understand. Much as I am ostracized by society, it won't compare to the isolation that she'll have to live in. But if we don't defeat Voldemort, none of us will be alive to partake in these philosophical discussions." He tapped his fingers on the table excitedly. "And it sounds like that is actually going to happen."

Harry sighed. "It just might…" For a few minutes, nobody spoke. He just couldn't drum up any excitement over Voldemort's impending defeat. Not when he was losing Hermione. Losing her to… He ran both of his hands roughly through his hair. He couldn't stop thinking of the way she-

"What did she do, Harry?" Lupin's eyes pierced his.

He sighed. It was better that Lupin knew everything. "Professor, we were stupid," Harry admitted. "And I think we'd be dead if Malfoy hadn't—" He felt his throat go dry and swallowed. "Hadn't been there to stop her."

Ron looked up, horrified, as Harry had just said precisely what he didn't want to come to terms with.

A sardonic grin appeared on Lupin's face. "Good thing we've got Malfoy around, then."

Ron clenched his fist. "Sodding, manky, cunt-faced, dodgy, pikey, mother-fucking, grotty, cocked-up - ."

"Ron, please," Lupin interrupted.

Ron was fuming and continued angrily. "God _fucking_ dammit! He… he _did _something to her! And now she…" Harry watched Ron's ears turn bright pink. His eyes were full of hatred. "He bloody well did this on purpose."

Harry rested his forehead in his palms, trying coming to grips with everything, and spoke to the table. "Hermione did this to _herself_. She wanted to give us a weapon. If we don't use it, everything she did will have been for nothing."

Ron glared at Harry wordlessly.

Lupin nodded. "Exactly. So, what did she have in mind?"

Both remained silent. Ron looked like he was ready to break the kitchen table in two with the force of his stare. Harry sighed again; Ron was too upset to talk rationally.

"We didn't get that far. Hermione was explaining how she got into Gringotts and I tried the binding spell on Malfoy." Harry ran a hand through his hair, unwittingly making it stick up more. "Honestly, I think that's what pushed her over the edge."

Lupin looked between Harry and Ron, who was still sulking angrily. "Why didn't one of you bind her?"

Harry had hoped to avoid that question, but turned to face Lupin. "At first, I didn't want to hurt her if I could help it. Malfoy really looked like he was in pain. But then… it was… I just…"

Harry looked to Ron for help, but he was still staring angrily at the table. "I couldn't believe that she would hurt either of us, even while she was feeding from Ron. And when she bit me," He felt his cock twitch at the memory of her body against his and he looked down, ashamed. He clenched his hand and continued in a gruff voice. "I didn't want her to stop."

He exhaled, trying to collect himself, and yet felt relieved to confide in someone. "But when Malfoy pulled her away," he shuddered and looked back up to Lupin, who was studying him. "Professor, she was like an animal. There was nothing human of her left. I…" His voice cracked. "I don't ever want to see her like that again."

Lupin stood up. "Listen to me well—both of you. This is who she is now. You need to accept that and move on. When the war is over, we'll have time to devote to other pursuits and possibly figure out a way to help her interact with society more. In the meantime, it's exactly like you said Harry; we need to use the weapon she's given us. Understand?"

Harry felt like he had lost a part of himself. It was almost as bad as when they had found Ginny's dead body.

"Understand?" Lupin repeated.

Harry nodded, as did Ron.

"Speaking of which," Lupin continued, "we need to set up another meeting with her to discuss strategy. Bill, Dora and I should be there as well. Then we can—"

"Do we really have to bind her with silver?" Ron interrupted angrily.

Lupin flattened his mouth into a line. "Yes, I'm afraid that's the only—"

Ron interrupted again. "Malfoy said it was almost as bad as the Cruciatus. Isn't there some way we could make it easier on her? Maybe we could give her more time before she..." He looked to the side and swore. "What if we were to bring garlic?"

Lupin looked surprised, almost as if he were going to laugh. Ron cursed and got up from the table sending his chair skidding across the floor.

Lupin held out his hand in an effort to placate Ron. "Wait, wait, Ron. I think you just might be onto something."

Ron turned around and Harry sat up straighter in his seat.

Ooooooooooooooooooo

"Hold on, Harry."

Tonks touched his collar with her wand and extended it to a turtleneck. She patted him on the back. "Very 'Flourish and Blotts.'"

The turtleneck was a bit too tight around his neck, and Harry inserted his finger underneath the material, pulling on it slightly. He lined up with Tonks, Bill, and Ron to face Lupin. Everyone was in a good mood; they were going to see Hermione, and they felt much more prepared to deal with her. Not only that, but they were going to plan out a strategy to end this war.

Lupin raised his wand, pointed it at Ron's chest and pronounced, "_Silencio Cor_!" Next, he waved his wand over Ron's body. _"Silencio Sangre!"_

Ron squeezed his eyes shut as if he expected it to hurt, and when nothing happened, he opened one eye, followed by the other. Lupin went on performing the silencing spells on everyone else.

"I don't feel any different," Ron said, looking down at his body.

Bill adjusted his turtleneck and donned a shapeless wizarding robe. "There's no reason you should."

Ron cupped his hands around his ears. "Weird," he said, after a few minutes.

"What?" Bill asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Nothing," Ron answered with a grin on his face, still cupping his ears.

"Mum always said you were the 'special' one."

Harry and Tonks sniggered.

Ron scowled. "No, really! Usually, it sounds like the ocean, but now… Nothing. Try it."

The other three cupped their hands over their ears, staring at nothing in particular.

Lupin was giving them all a very odd look, and he cleared his throat. The four looked at him, and then brought their hands down awkwardly.

"Alright then," Lupin said with an amused smile. "On to the next round." He pointed his wand at Harry, who was fastening a set of bulky wizarding robes.

"_Turgeo odoro!_"

After Harry, he performed the spell on Tonks, and then on Bill and Ron before pointing his wand on himself.

Ron leaned over and sniffed Bill. "Ah… now the air smells nice again. You know when you smell something bad for so long you just don't notice—hey! Ow!"

Bill smacked Ron upside the head.

Tonks stood in front of Harry with her pinky extended. She dabbed him behind the left ear, dipped her pinky in a vial full of yellowish liquid, and dabbed him behind the right ear. The smell reminded him of Italian restaurants. She went on dabbing everyone else behind the ears.

Lupin was appraising everyone. "Alright. We took care of sight, smell and hearing. There's not much we can do about touch and taste, but even so, I think that we've bought ourselves much more time with her." He glanced over at Ron. "Good thinking."

Ron grinned.

"Alright, you've all practiced the binding spell, let's hope it won't come to that." Lupin led them out the door. They looked around, making sure the road was deserted before Apparating.

Harry staggered a bit after landing in the field, and Bill caught his elbow, steering him to an upright position.

"Thanks."

"Yep."

"Hey." Hermione's voice was soft and apologetic.

They all turned around to see her and Malfoy standing several feet away from them, dressed in black. Malfoy tilted his head, a puzzled look on his face. Slowly, a half grin spread and he gave Harry an approving nod. Harry thought Ron deserved the credit since it was his idea and he pointed in Ron's direction. Malfoy responded with a look of disbelief.

Hermione took a deep breath and looked between Harry and Ron. "Harry, Ron, before you bind me, I just wanted to apologize." Her voice started to tremble and Harry felt his heart go out to her. Malfoy put a supportive arm around her, which didn't go unnoticed by Ron, who glared daggers at him. "I never meant to hurt either of you! I just didn't think… Oh, I'm so sorry! Draco tried to warn me but I—"

She abruptly stopped talking and crinkled her nose. "I… What's that… Oh my _god! _That's disgusting! Did we Apparate next to a corpse?"

Draco covered his mouth and nose with his hand. She started looking around for the source of the smell. Harry couldn't keep the grin from his face. He nudged Ron, who was also smiling, with his elbow.

This was going to work.

She covered her mouth and nose with her hand and looked questioningly at everyone else. "You don't smell it? It's… it's…" She leaned slightly in their direction and then immediately recoiled. "It's coming from you!" Harry watched her lip curl in disgust, but she met his eyes, saw his grin, saw Ron's grin, and her hand dropped from her mouth.

"You… you did this. And the way you're dressed… and I can't hear your… your…" Harry saw a smile spread on her face. "You all did this for me." She went to run and hug them, but Draco pulled her back; she looked happy, but her eyes were tearful. Harry looked at Ron, who to his credit said nothing, and silently clenched his jaw.

She turned towards them; her eyes still gleaming with unshed tears. "Thank you."

"I think that it's us who need to be thanking you, Hermione," Lupin said.

They all nodded and murmured their agreement.

"This wouldn't be happening if it weren't for you," Lupin continued. "Now, I don't know how much time we have here. Is there any way to estimate how long before…" His voice trailed off and he looked between Draco and Hermione.

Hermione looked up at Draco who shook his head to the negative.

"So why don't we get started?" Harry said. "Hermione? This is your game."

She nodded and pretended to scratch her nose as she wiped a stray tear away. Harry grinned. Some things were still the same.

Straightening herself, she smoothed her shirt and addressed them in her lecturing tone. "Alright. This is how it's going to play out. Draco and I will go in to the fortress first, clear out as much as we can and signal when we think they're alerted to our presence. We're extremely fast and won't need much time to act, assuming we don't…" she flushed, and continued.

"In any case, the most important thing, and I can't stress this enough—" She gave another apologetic look to Ron and Harry. "—is to stay away from us. With all the fighting, and the excitement, the adrenaline, the…" she said, shuddering. "Even if we feed beforehand, it might be too much. Especially if there's bloodshed." She closed her eyes briefly, as if the mere mention of it were affecting her.

Malfoy's brows knitted in worry. They waited patiently while she composed herself. After a few more seconds, she opened her eyes and continued. "If you see us in a room, you have to leave right away. Be prepared to bind us. And that bit of spellwork that you did tonight was brilliant. Do it on everyone." She looked to Malfoy.

"Draco? Can you—? Thanks."

Malfoy conjured a large piece of parchment, rolled it up and levitated it over to them. Tonks grabbed it out of the air and unrolled it. Everyone gasped, and Harry grabbed a corner to pull it closer to him, mouth slightly open. Even Ron looked reluctantly impressed. It was a blueprint of the fortress, replete with the lines of the protective wards, and areas where magic was used to fortify or entrap.

"Now, _we _won't go through the entrances," Hermione continued as flashes of red indicated where she was talking about on the map. "It will ensure that we exploit the element of surprise to the fullest extent. And when they do find out that there are intruders, they'll pull guards away from all the entrances and exits to fight internally, thus making it easier for you to come in. Another thing I've thought of…"

Harry looked curiously at the expression of admiration and tenderness on Malfoy's face, and realized with a shock, that Malfoy loved her. He knew that there was more to their relationship than met the eye, especially given Hermione's changed Patronus. But he didn't know how much of it was due to the fact that they were vampires and needed to... he pushed away the memory of Draco pinning Hermione to the ground. Maybe having Malfoy around wasn't such a bad thing. At least Hermione's feelings for him weren't one-sided. In the end, if it weren't for Malfoy, she would be alone most of the time. Wouldn't she?

As if sensing that Harry had been watching him, Malfoy looked up and sneered.

Sodding ponce.

"…shifts in guard duty, and that's when Draco and I will start attacking. And then we—yes, Bill?"

"The wards, you said that you can take them down." She nodded and he continued. "How long will it take you?"

"Seconds."

Lupin was shaking his head and muttering to himself. Harry thought he'd heard him say "unbelievable."

"Draco's done it before," Hermione said. Apparently, she had heard him, too.

After a bit of silence, she opened her mouth to speak again before Lupin interrupted her. "Instead of taking them down, can you… alter the wards?"

At this, Hermione looked to Malfoy, who shrugged and nodded to the affirmative. Lupin was rubbing his chin in thought.

"Can you change them so that we can all enter, but no one can leave? No Apparition, no Portkeys, no Floo, nothing."

Harry felt an adrenaline rush.

Ron protested, "But Professor, what if someone—?"

Harry turned to him. "We're going to win Ron. And we don't want to be hunting down rogue Death Eaters years from now."

Lupin gave him a half smile and nodded. "Something like that."

"Alright," Tonks said, with an aggressive tone to her voice. "The final battle."

Harry looked down to see different flashes of color appear on the map. Hermione's voice rang out, confident and strong. She was completely in her element.

"Now these are the paths that I want the Order to take. They are the most efficient way to sweep the castle, which we'll do in two stages. The second stage will be to catch any that might have doubled back. I agree, I don't want anybody escaping to fight another day. Two-thirds of our force will be in the first stage; we won't need as many for the second. Harry, pay attention."

He sat up straighter.

"This is where Voldemort is most likely going to be." Harry looked up to see Malfoy flinch at the name, as he knew he would. He smiled at Malfoy's discomfort. "You…" she paused, and he met her eyes. They were full of concern. "You know what you have to do."

He knew what he'd have to do since Seventh Year.

While Bill, Tonks and Lupin fired a series of questions at her, making suggestions and changing plans, Ron caught his eye and nodded. It was good to know that there were people who would have his back until the end. Harry looked up at Hermione, deep in discussion with Tonks, when suddenly she tensed.

Malfoy put his hand protectively on the back of her neck and she looked up at him, a worried expression on her face. He nodded and murmured something to her, too quiet for them to hear.

"I… I'm sorry. In spite of everything you've done, you're all starting to look fairly delicious and I think that I…" She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, scrunching up her face in disgust over the garlicky smell. "Yes, I think I should go. Draco can finish answering your questions. We planned for this, I'll just—"

"Hermione," Harry called out, and she turned to him. "You're brilliant. We all owe you."

Somehow he knew, he just _knew _that everything was going to work out. It felt right. It was unfortunate that they couldn't be around her that long, but this was almost like a normal meeting with the Order. Almost.

"Oh, Harry, I've missed you all so much and I… I…oh!" A look of sheer panic crossed her features and she wrung her hands helplessly right before her fangs extended. Draco stepped over to her and she hissed at him, backing up defensively. He lunged at her, encircled her upper arms with his hands, and Disapparated the both of them with a pop.

Harry turned to Ron. "Well, that went much better than last time."

Ron looked physically ill at the memory. "I _don't _want to hear it."

Harry was about to ask him what he thought about Hermione's plans when Malfoy immediately reappeared.

"Where is she?" Harry asked.

"About a half mile that way," he said, motioning with his head. "There were a few deer…"

Harry saw Ron sneer out of the corner of his eye and there was an uncomfortable silence as the unbidden image of Hermione elbow deep in deer blood came to them.

Malfoy scanned them briefly and said, "Well, if that's all…"

Bill cut him off, "You made that map?"

Malfoy narrowed his eyes, and after deciding there was no ulterior motive in the question, he nodded.

Bill continued, "It's quite detailed, we can use the magic and traps put in place to our advantage."

Tonks was leaning over the map, tracing her finger along one of the lines. "Nice work, cousin."

Malfoy didn't reply, but Harry thought he saw a fleeting smile.

Ron spoke up harshly. "What day?"

Malfoy shifted his eyes to Ron. "What's that?"

Ron ground his words out as though speaking to Malfoy was causing him acute pain. "What. Day. She didn't say which day she wanted us to attack."

Malfoy sneered right back. "As soon as you can gather everyone and coordinate. That would require some communicative and organizational skills. Not exactly your forte, Weasley."

Bill snorted. Ron opened his mouth to retort when Malfoy interrupted him.

"One more thing."

Ron glared at him.

"You have to _Obliviate _everyone after the attack is done."

_What? _Harry snapped his head up, and Malfoy continued. "Everyone in the Order, and everyone left alive. No one can know about wizard vampires."

"What's that?" Tonks asked. Lupin and Bill were looking at him warily.

"We're too powerful. You're most likely going to be outnumbered four to one in this attack, but because of our speed and strength, you'll have the advantage, and quite easily. Imagine if the Dark Lord were a vampire. What if he had wizard vampires working with him? If you don't _Obliviate_ everyone, you'll kill _this _Dark Lord, and another will appear, finding power and immortality much more easily than this one did. Think about it."

Harry listened to Malfoy with his mouth slightly open. He hadn't thought of that. It was an excellent point. "You're right."

Malfoy nodded to him in acknowledgment. He saw the reluctant acceptance on the faces of Lupin, Tonks and Bill, but Malfoy's assertions were making Ron even angrier.

"That's ridiculous! How can we possibly _Obliviate _that many—"

"They would hunt her down, Weasley."

Ron stopped mid-sentence and clamped his mouth shut.

"She'll be famous after this, a symbol. Everyone will know who and what she is. You don't need some nutcase on a mission trying to track her down."

Ron's jaw clicked. "Fine," he said belligerently.

For once, they were in agreement.

"Much as I'd love to stick around," Malfoy said, giving them a look that told them that he would love to do anything _but_. "I'm hungry."

With a final smirk, he Disapparated.

**Chapter End Notes:**

Oooooh! Final battle coming up next!

Also, I tried to make it obvious from the context and Ron's observations, but just in case: the spells are to silence the sound of the blood and heart, and to remove their smell. Turtlenecks are to hide their necks, shapeless robes to hide the contours of their bodies.


	9. Chapter 9 Alternate ending

**Chapter 9 - Alternate ending **

"One day more."

"Mmm, hmm."

"Are you nervous?"

"No… not really. We've been at this for so long. You?

"I… yes actually…"

Hermione turned to him. "Really?"

"Since my Mum died, I didn't have anything to lose. I didn't care much about what happened to me or anyone else. Now…" He wrapped his fingers around hers, and squeezed, "things are different."

She turned his face so that he was facing her and gently pressed her lips to his in a chaste kiss. Their noses touched, and she could feel his breath tickling the skin around her mouth. He smiled and stroked her cheek with his finger.

Hermione looked up curiously at him, and bit her lip.

"What?" Draco said as he smiled down at her.

"Nothing."

He tugged on one of her curls. "I know you. You were going to say something."

She looked out at the earth, took a deep breath, and then turned back to him. "Draco, when did you- I was just curious- when did you stop thinking of me as a Mudblood?"

His eyes opened in surprise. "Oh," he said, and then gave an embarrassed smile. "When you slapped me."

"Sixth Year?" Hermione asked. That didn't make sense.

"No." He barked a laugh. "Third."

She raised her eyebrows in surprise. "Really?"

Draco chuckled at her bewilderment. "It's easier to dismiss someone as unequal if you don't interact with them, don't look at them, don't have an actual conversation with them. They remain inconsequential, and… it's easier to believe they're not really a person."

She smirked. "So I slapped some sense into you?"

"Something like that," he said as he grinned at her. "Though it wasn't just the slap. You got my attention, and then… I saw the look in your eyes. You were fierce and angry… and you were looking _right at me_."

"Go on." Hermione stroked the muscles of his arm and waited for him to continue.

"It was as if you..." He exhaled in thought. "Well, you forced me to come to grips with the fact that you were _you_… just like I am myself. At that moment when you looked at me, I realized…" he gave her an apologetic half grin, "that you were a person. And if you were a person, then all Muggle-borns must be as well." He paused and then asked, "Does that make any sense?" She nodded. "And then later on…" His voice trailed off. He looked pensive, trying to determine if he should continue or not.

"Go on," Hermione urged him again. "Not only is this fascinating, but my ego is quite enjoying all of the thought and agonizing directed at me."

Draco laughed lightly. "I was going to say that it wasn't until later that I started to think of you as… more than some annoying little swot. I mean… you were _really_ irritating, Granger."

"Oh," she said, not sure how to react to this bit of information.

"Not anymore, you've changed quite a bit since those days." He ruffled her hair and she smiled ruefully. "In any case, I accepted that you were a person, but I didn't like you. At all." He tilted his head to the side after looking at her jilted expression. "Granted, some of it was jealousy, but then during fourth year..."

"The Yule Ball?" she guessed. That was when Ron had suddenly discovered that she was of the female persuasion as well.

He looked taken aback. "What? No. You didn't even _look_ like yourself then. It was during that whole business with Rita Skeeter."

"Rita Skeeter?" she repeated, dumbly, not sure of what he meant. He was the one who started the problems with Rita Skeeter in the first place.

"She was trashing your reputation -" he paused. "Sorry about that."

She waved her hand dismissively. He had apologized for everything he had done long ago.

"Well... everyone was taunting you. But you just… ignored them." She looked at him questioningly. "It wasn't just that you ignored everyone, it was _how_ you did it. You looked almost…" he paused, searching for the correct word, "regal. You made everyone else seem foolish. I… I think that's when I really started to respect you. People were throwing shit at you, but _they_ came out covered in it. Not you."

"Oh." She was flattered, and hadn't been expecting that answer at all.

He looked at her apologetically. "I guess I didn't give you any reasons to respect me during school."

She raised an eyebrow at him. "You saved my life sixth year… and possibly fourth. I'd say we're even."

He grinned and shook his head.

"Draco?"

Still grinning, he answered, "Hermione."

"It's been bothering me…. Apparating into the fortress. Don't you think that will alert them? Set off alarms?"

He furrowed his brow. "Probably. I'm counting on our speed to do most of the damage before they'll be able to do anything about it. Remember, we want them to eventually know that we're on the inside. It'll be easier for the rest to get in."

"Yes, but we should delay that as long as possible, right? Are there any windows that we could go through?"

"You saw the map."

"Entrapped with spells and charms."

"We could probably figure out a way around them and get through, but that would take time, and some trial and error."

"Huh." Hermione bit her lip in thought. "What are the walls like?"

"They're made of these huge two ton stones." Sitting up and turning around, he gave a cursory glance to the rock that they were sitting against. "About this size, I guess. Are you thinking that we could blast our way through?" He peered at the stone. "Wizards couldn't, but we probably could."

She shook her head. "But then, we'd alert them, and they'd know that we were just coming in. They'd fortify the entrances, not pull back."

Draco was caressing the face of the rock as delicately as he had caressed her backside when they had lain in the field earlier. Giving her a side-long glance, he asked, "Fancy we could walk through the walls?"

Her eyes widened. "Have you done it?"

"No, it never crossed my mind to try." He gave her a sly grin and said, "Being with you brings out a world of possibility."

A giddy smile spread across her face as she watched him study the stone. He narrowed his eyes and bent forward, pressing his hand into the solid rock experimentally.

"I think if we—"

Suddenly inspired, she stood and pulled Draco up with her. She stepped in between Draco and the large rock, blocking his line of vision.

"Take my hands," she said, holding them out in front of her.

He clasped her small hands in his, and she took a steadying breath. Slowly, she proceeded to walk backwards, pulling him along. She watched Draco's awed expression as the rock swallowed her, obscuring her vision as everything went black. A few seconds later, they emerged on the other side.

"I… love you," he said, his voice lilting slightly with amazement. "How did you—?"

"A layered transfiguration and vanishing. Bit by bit."

"Nicely done." He nodded appreciatively. "Any other bits of the plan you want to take apart?" he teased her.

She pursed her lips and narrowed her eyes. "How about I just take apart your bits?"

Draco gave her a slow smile, which widened to reveal his fangs. "Who knew," he said as he circled Hermione's waist with his hands, "that your talk of knocking me around would make me randy?"

She ran her hand up the back of his neck and played with the soft hairs there, flashing her teeth. "Do you like dominant women?"

He lowered his face to hers and said softly, "I like _you_."

Her devilish smile turned warm and she turned to face the slowly rotating earth. "Do you want to go somewhere else?" she asked, suddenly excited. "See more of the world before the battle? It's still night in parts of Africa. We could climb Mount Kilimanjaro. Run on the plains of the Serengeti."

He gave a wistful smile. "Let's just stay here for a while. This is… this is our place. It's pure. Untouched. After the battle, we'll do whatever you want. I don't care, so long as we're together."

She rested her head on his shoulder and they stood, watching the slowly rotating Earth. After a few minutes of silence, Hermione turned to Draco, pushing her bare breasts against his chest.

"You could bite me," she said in lowered voice.

He quirked an eyebrow. "You're not making a very good case for travelling to Africa."

She reached down to stroke him and smirked at his budding erection. "I think this is why we've never heard of wizard vampires. They're too busy."

ooooooooooooooooooooooo

Hermione and Draco stood at the edge of the wards which surrounded the grounds of the fortress. She raised her hand; and slowly pressed it to the barrier. It rippled and gelled around her palm, bending to her will, and her lips parted in wonder.

"Amazing, isn't it?" Draco spoke softly into her ear.

"I thought this would be difficult," she said, studying the perturbations caused by her hand in fascination. "I can do whatever I want with it, and they won't know."

She closed her eyes, and a bright light emitted from her hand, spread and diffused into the barrier around her before dimming into the darkness. Slowly, she lowered her hand.

"That's it," she said breathily, still in disbelief of her own power.

She turned towards Draco, and sent a Patronus to Harry telling him that the wards were already modified and that they would start combing the grounds. She could already see the bizarre effect the wards had as fallen leaves swirled in the wind and accumulated at the interior edges. Anyone could go in, but no one could get out.

"You really think it will only take us five minutes to take out the external guard?" she asked him.

He smiled, baring his teeth. "Much less than that, assuming you don't stop to snack. Animals won't stave off your hunger, Hermione. No matter how much you wish it so."

She looked down, ashamed, thinking of how she had attacked Harry and Ron.

"Hey," he said, lifting her chin with his fingers, "There's nothing for it; it can't be helped. This is the way we are. Now, you realize that you're likely to get a bout of bloodlust. Accept it and work around it."

"What if I ruin the surprise?"

"I won't let you. Nobody knows we're here and we have plenty of time until the guard changes. Our job is to make it easier for the rest. It's a good plan. It'll work."

She nodded. "I know. I just… thought I'd be with Harry and Ron at the very end." She gave a resigned sigh, "Now, I think I'd fuck it up for them."

"Probably," he said and she winced. "Look, you're making sure that they'll get there. This attack wouldn't be happening if it weren't for you."

"You helped, too," she protested.

He chuckled. "I could give a shit, Hermione." He looked deep into her eyes and she felt her breath hitch at the intensity there. "This is all for you."

She flushed with warmth and emotion at his words, and felt heartened by her part in the war, even though it was altered from what she originally thought it would be.

He gave a quick squeeze to her hand. "Remember: don't get too close, don't shed blood, and keep moving. It'll only take a few seconds for us to cover the grounds."

She nodded, gave a half grin and then raised her eyebrow at him. "Beat you to the other side?"

He drew back and looked at her as if she had said something incredibly stupid. "Doubtful, Granger."

In a flash, she was silently running back and forth, covering the ground between the fortress wall and the ward, only stopping to survey her surroundings for a fraction of a second. Two guards were talking to each other in the distance, clad in black robes. She felled them instantly, and continued on further into the trees.

She couldn't deny that the scent of warm bodies wasn't affecting her, but she kept moving. She incapacitated another Death Eater. And another. And another.

She could do this, she could.

And then she stopped. She could smell someone nearby—hear a heartbeat. She looked around, but no one was in her line of sight. She leapt forward to where the source of the heartbeat was and looked to her right. A young woman with dark hair was leaning against a wide tree, thus explaining as to why Hermione didn't see her.

Her hood was thrown back and she had taken off her mask, staring down at it. She was so deep in thought that she hadn't even noticed Hermione appear behind her. Her hair was tied back, and Hermione could see every vein underneath her skin. Warm skin. Warm flesh.

Saliva pooled in her mouth, and she knew that she had to leave before losing herself to bloodlust. Summoning her willpower, she was just about to go when the Death Eater whirled around with her wand out, having heard Hermione's panting.

Immediately, the heartbeat that had Hermione so entranced sped up and the thrumming of blood became much louder as adrenaline rushed through the woman's body. She felt her fangs extend.

She gasped, "The Mudblood! Cruc—" The timbre in her voice sent Hermione's hunger into overdrive and before the woman could finish, Hermione knocked the wand out of her hand, pinned the Death Eater up against the tree, and sunk her teeth into her neck.

The woman cried out, which only spurred Hermione on, and she drank her fill of the sweet, sweet warmth. Her eyes rolled back and she moaned, rubbing herself against the woman, who was weakly clawing and pushing at Hermione, unsuccessfully trying to free herself.

Hermione felt an uncontrollable desire course through her and she ground her pelvis into the woman, writhing as she fed from her. It wasn't enough, she needed more; she was itchy and aching all over her body. The blood was at once sating her and inflaming her further.

Never releasing her latch on the woman's neck, she dragged her down to the ground and proceeded to gyrate over her rapidly weakening body, causing friction over her sensitive core. Slowly, the flow lessened. Frustrated, Hermione let out a growl and sucked harder, pressing herself more forcefully into the woman, as if stretching for something that she couldn't quite reach. Bit by bit, the flow slowed to a trickle, until it disappeared entirely. Bent over the now dead woman on all fours, Hermione extracted her fangs from her flesh with a snarl.

Sensing she wasn't alone, she looked up with a start to see Draco leaning against a tree with his arms folded, casually observing her in amusement.

She licked the blood from her lips and he grinned wickedly down at her, revealing his fangs.

Eyes glittering, he said in a sing-song voice, "I win."

With a shriek, she lunged at him, clamoring at his body so that he would fill her in the way that only he could.

Ooooooooooo

Quickly, Hermione repaired her clothes muttering, "Shit, shit, shit, shit," and headed towards the exterior wall of the fortress.

"Where are you running off to?" Draco asked lazily.

She stopped in her tracks and looked incredulously back at him. "Why are you still on the ground? We've lost a lot of time! We have to go!"

"Firstly, because I've never been fucked so hard in my life and I'm sore as hell—not that I didn't enjoy myself, mind you." He gave her a lascivious smile. "Secondly, we have plenty of time before the guard changes. They won't know we're here until we start disrupting the fortress and the Order won't come until we signal. We could probably clear out half the fortress in a few minutes now that you're sated and better able to control yourself... pending any extreme situations. We've got lots of time."

Gingerly, Draco crawled to his feet and winced as he stood up. Hermione hurried over to him. "Are you okay?"

He bent over and put his hands on his knees. "I'm in much better shape than that tree you threw me against." She looked over at the fallen tree, split down the middle.

"Sorry," Hermione said in a small voice, rubbing the smooth skin of his back.

He closed his eyes briefly. "Right… there… yeahhhhhhh…" She kneaded his muscles and a healing spell followed the movement of her hands.

After another groan, Draco looked over his shoulder to watch her work on his back. She met his eyes and slid her hands over the smooth expanse of his back, down to his buttocks, and back again.

"It's not so bad you know," she said.

"What's that?"

"Forever. With you."

He blinked, and she couldn't tell if he was happy from her admission, or sad in that she was giving so much of her previous life up. Probably both.

His voice lowered. "We'll find a way, Hermione. It'll just take time."

She swallowed, and gave him a small smile.

"Fortunately, we have it in spades."

A slow, half grin formed on his face. "That we do."

He turned around to face her.

"Ready?"

She cocked an eyebrow and gave him a once-over.

"Are you going to streak through the castle?"

He looked down as if nothing was amiss and said, "We wanted to surprise them, didn't we?"

She waved her hand and conjured a form-fitting black outfit on him and they walked towards the wall of the fortress.

"Why is it always black with you?"

"So we can't be seen," she answered.

"That's what Disillusionment Charms are for. You do know that the inside is lit up like the Great Hall on Christmas, don't you? Black won't do much towards concealment."

"Why are you complaining? I have yet to see you wear anything _but_ black."

He opened his mouth as if to retort, and then shut it, instead reaching out to pinch her bum before sprinting towards the wall of the fortress.

"Hey!" she called as she ran after him. But before she could retaliate, he was walking backwards, eyebrows raised, and a smirk plastered across his lips as he disappeared into the wall of the fortress.

She quickly followed, and the two emerged in a brightly lit hallway, empty but for the lit torches and suits of armor standing along the walls. They could hear voices on the other side of the far wall and approached it together.

"Again?" she asked.

"It will take them by surprise."

She glanced at him.

"Ready?"

He nodded.

She looked at the wall nervously. They could hear roughly fifteen people on the other side. Slowly, she walked forwards and blackness encased her. She emerged on the other side to see four robed men bent over a table while a fifth shouted out orders to the rest of the people in the room.

Abruptly, the fifth stopped shouting and stared directly at her. After a pause in which nobody spoke, the room seemed to move as one and everyone made to attack them. Hermione and Draco dodged and deflected curses with blinding speed, while taking the robed men bloodlessly. The whole thing lasted less than ten seconds. Hermione looked around, admiring their work when she noticed that there weren't nearly as many beating hearts now as when they had first entered.

Hermione shot a horrified look at Draco. "You haven't been stunning them?"

He looked at her, incredulous. "You _have_?"

Hermione glared at him. "It's just as easy to stun as it is to kill. Easier, even!"

Draco exhaled sharply through his nose. "Do you want this war to end or not? We _need_ to finish them off! Hermione, you can't—"

She waved her hand. "We don't have time for this. I have to signal the Order. The Death Eaters will soon know that something is wrong, if they don't already. Let's go-and Draco?"

He looked up, glaring at her mutinously.

"Stun them."

Ooooooooooooooo

Draco and Hermione proceeded in much the same fashion throughout the fortress. Sometimes following a path through the corridors, sometimes walking through walls, doing their best to take out as many Death Eaters as they could, as quickly as they could. Hermione found that Draco wouldn't follow her directives as she was used to the others in the Order doing. When they encountered Death Eaters, Hermione tried to stun them before Draco could kill them, the result was that they left a mix of dead and alive in their wake.

After he had needlessly killed someone that she had just stunned, she rounded on him furiously. "Has being a vampire made you so callous to human life?"

"I kill when I need to!" he shot back. "For food and defense!"

"Stunning them is enough! It's not always necessary to kill! You don't need to defend yourself from someone who's out cold!"

"Tell me, Hermione," Draco asked in mock query. "How many of the Dark Lord's supporters that were _not_ killed in the first war are fighting you right now in _this_ one?"

Hermione ground her teeth. "Going by your logic, Dumbledore should have killed you back in sixth year when he knew what you were doing. _I_ should have killed you back during the fake prisoner exchange!"

Draco snarled and pushed her roughly against the wall, knocking the wind out of her. "Yes," he growled down at her, "you should have."

"If I would have killed you," she spat at him, "we wouldn't be winning right now."

He dug his fingers into her shoulders, making her wince. "If Dumbledore would have offed me then, he would still be alive and the Dark Lord might have been killed before the second war even started."

She was seething, too angry to correct his assumption regarding Dumbledore's health at the time. With a lowered voice, she said, "Draco, you're murdering people." He flinched, but she continued mercilessly. "Like it or not, that's what it's called. If you don't stop, I'm leaving you."

The effect was instantaneous. Draco's angry expression fell from his face and he sagged back, deflated. Hermione rubbed her shoulders where his grip had bruised her.

His voice took on a dejected tone. "I just… I just want you to be safe."

She sighed and her voice softened. "I know. But you're taking it to an unnecessary extreme."

He swallowed, visibly shaken by her ultimatum. "Okay."

"Okay?" she said in a whisper.

He nodded, still affected. "I don't agree with you, but… yes."

She stood on her tiptoes and he lowered his head to receive her kiss.

"_Reducto!_"

The ping of a ricochet followed by a large crash and disconcerting splatter sounded from one of the adjoining rooms. They both tensed as the air became thick with an unbelievably strong smell of blood. She looked into Draco's eyes, now shining hungrily down at her and felt him harden. Their fangs extended and she started to salivate. She knew that they should leave, but somehow she found herself in the middle of a blood-splattered room, with Draco beside her, just as hypnotized by the blood as she was. Looking around at the carnage, entranced, she didn't even remember how she had gotten there. Disembodied limbs and shattered glass were everywhere.

The compulsion to feed became overwhelming. Slowly, she turned to the lone figure standing in the doorway at the far end. He had a wound on his shoulder and was bleeding profusely. She couldn't hear his heartbeat because it had been silenced, but she felt the vibrations and small disturbances in the air around her… pulsing. His blood flowed red and warm out of his wound with the same rhythm. She started walking towards it and felt Draco moving slowly with her. Slowly, slowly, towards that pulse.

"Neville," Hermione said, completely entranced. "You're bleeding."

**Chapter End Notes:**

Dare I kill off Neville? ::eyebrows wiggling::

Please tell me your thoughts, I love the reviews!


	10. Chapter 10  Alternate ending

**Chapter 10 - Alternate ending**

Draco was terrified.

Hermione was naked, covered with blood, hugging her knees, and rocking back and forth on the floor. Crouched in front of her and trying to calm her down, he was at a complete loss of what to do. She didn't appear to hear anything he was saying. Her muttered half sentences gave no indication that she was listening to him. If anything, his attempts to get through to her were making her more upset.

"We… We… I can't believe we did that! I can't believe — oh! Draco! We're evil! Vile!" she hiccuped and started sobbing again.

He clutched her upper arms, trying to steady her and still her rocking. He tried to keep the panic out of his voice, but it rose in tenor nonetheless, foiling his attempts to soothe her. "Hermione, Hermione. Listen to me. There was too much blood. I had no control either."

She looked up and he felt ice flood his veins at the slightly crazed look in her eyes. Her words came out in bursts as she hyperventilated. "He wa-was my first friend! And we f-fed from him! We _killed_ him! And… And… _I knew what I was doing!_ And, _oh God!_ We, we—" Unable to continue her sentence, she sucked in a shuddering breath and continued to rock back and forth.

He didn't know what to do; he was losing her. In a moment of sheer desperation, he backhanded her.

Shocked, she looked up at him—hurt but coherent. "_This _is what we are, Hermione. Accept it."

Her mouth was open and her eyes swiveled to stare at Longbottom's violated body.

"Hermione, look at me." She continued gaping, and Draco turned her around so that the corpse was behind her. "Look at me." She stared into his eyes, mouth still slightly open.

"He's not the only one of the Order that died tonight, and there will be more. It was an _accident_. Friendly fire. That's happened to the Order before, hasn't it?"

She didn't answer, but a weak whimper left her mouth. "Parvati."

"What?" he asked, confused. Petrified that he would lose her attention again, he tried a different tack.

"Most of the Order will be leaving tonight unharmed, even against the odds they're facing. Do you know why?"

When she didn't answer, he grasped her shoulders and shook her gently, saying, "Do you?" She whimpered again.

"Because of _you_, Hermione. You're intelligent, you're pragmatic, and you took an opportunity when it presented itself, even against my will. You _knew_ we'd be an incredible weapon, but underestimated how hard we would be to control. If it weren't for you, we wouldn't be here now, and the Order wouldn't be winning. Do you hear me?"

He shook her again, less gently this time.

"Do you?" he raised his voice, near panicking himself.

"Yes, yes!" she said, still crying.

"Hermione, it's war. People die. But _you already know this!_ You're an excellent strategist! I've seen it! I've been on the opposing side! You know what needs to be done, and you do it! Gods, Hermione! Your side is _winning! _Are you going to give up now?"

_Don'tgiveupdon'tgiveupdon'tgive- Please!_

She took a heaving breath and looked up at him. Her eyes were sad, yes, but sharp. Lucid. His muscles relaxed as relief spread through his entire body at the sight of her return to normalcy.

"Draco," she asked in a small voice, "Have you ever-?"

"Goyle," he said, cutting her off.

He saw realization light up her eyes and she gasped. "I didn't know! You never said anything! You seemed…"

"I told you. I accept what I am. He was in the wrong place at the wrong time. I wasn't as upset as I would have been had we been as close as we had been back in school. He…" Draco swallowed, "despised me after I changed. And, well, that was the night I got you. I've never attacked anyone that I really loved… not until you."

She smiled weakly and then dropped her head into her hands.

Not wanting her to slip away from him again, Draco pulled her up to a stand, and wiped away her tears, smearing blood on her face in the process. He cupped her cheek and said in an even voice, "_Accept _what you are. Accept it, and stay away from those you love. Come on, it's not over yet. We can have this conversation another time."

She seemed hesitant to leave and he pressed on. "For every one of them that we ki… incapacitate, we're bringing the end of this war sooner and reducing the casualties your friends will suffer."

She looked up at him pleadingly. "No, it's not that. Please! We can't… we can't _leave_ him like that."

He glanced over her shoulder at Longbottom's corpse on the floor, and then into her horrified eyes. His voice lowered. "I'll take care of it. Wait for me in the next room."

"Thanks," she whispered.

ooooooooooooooooo

Draco and Hermione, worn out a bit emotionally but otherwise unscathed, continued in much the same fashion. Running from room to room, stunning Death Eaters, and evading members of the Order as best they could. Keeping away from the Order was usually easy, since the rotting stench of garlic warned them of their proximity.

After some time of traversing empty rooms, they ran into Lupin, who had given them an impressed nod of approval, and Tonks, who was half in shock with the success of the operation.

"Wait," Hermione called out as they turned to leave so as not to be in the presence of the two vampires.

Lupin and Tonks stopped and turned around.

"You sure?" Lupin asked, eyes narrowed.

She nodded. They had all but engorged themselves just a few minutes ago.

"How many… who else has died?"

"Who did you see dead?" Lupin asked quickly, brow furrowed in worry.

Hermione felt herself tear up. She opened her mouth to answer, but nothing came out.

"Longbottom," Draco answered for her and squeezed her hand lightly.

She swallowed. _What would she do without him?_

"Neville?" Tonks repeated, dismayed. "We didn't know! Where did you see him? They haven't found him yet."

"Back in the east corridor towards the armaments room," Draco answered again for her.

"Oh, Hermione," Tonks said as she finally noticed the horror-struck on Hermione's face. "I know that you two were close. But we're winning! His death wouldn't be for nothing. And we'll get the bastards who killed him. We will."

_Gods!_Hermione sucked in a shuddering breath. She had to keep it together. But she had to tell them. She had to.

Draco was rubbing circles on the underside of her wrist, but she could tell that he was tensing up, afraid for her.

"Who else?" she asked, her voice scratchy.

"Kingsley Shacklebolt, Susan Bones, Seamus Finnegan and Dennis Creevey," Lupin answered.

"Dennis Creevey?" Hermione said in shock, finally able to get control of her voice. "But he's a mediwizard! He just takes the dead and injured away!"

Lupin nodded at her grimly. "Lavender said they were attacked while he and Colin were carrying her out."

"Lavender's injured?"

Tonks answered this time. "She's got a broken leg and some spell injured her spine."

She gasped. "Her spine?"

Tonks nodded gravely. "Hers is the most serious injury. Madam Pomfrey should be able to mend the rest."

Hermione took a deep breath and gazed up at the two. They had to know. "About Neville…"

Hermione felt a slight tug on her arm. She looked to Draco and saw him shake his head.

"We'll find him," Lupin answered. "Don't worry."

With a wave, they went off to another room.

Hermione turned to Draco, her lips trembling.

"I need to tell them!" she protested.

Tenderly, he placed a hand on either side of her face. "Now is not the time," he whispered. "They'll figure it out anyway when they find his body. Let's finish this."

She closed her eyes and nodded, and they moved on.

After the majority of the Death Eaters had been defeated, Hermione and Draco finally arrived at a circular room, which had multiple doors—much as the Department of Mysteries had. Draco frowned in thought.

"What is it?" Hermione asked.

"A trap. It wasn't like this when I was here before."

Hermione waved her hand, sensing the ebb and flow of the magic around her, and pointed to the door that appeared to be the one they had just entered from.

"That one."

Draco slowly approached and rested his fingertips on the handle. "Potter and Weasley. They're already there, and they're surrounded."

Her eyes widened. "Hurry! They might be-"

He turned to Hermione and the expression on his face stopped her mid sentence. His whole demeanour had suddenly changed. His eyes were worried, sad. He seemed reluctant to enter and… maybe afraid? She didn't understand why. Was he nervous?

"These will be the best of the Dark Lord's Death Eaters," Draco explained. She could detect a slight tremor in his voice. He was definitely agitated about something. "It's his inner circle. Intelligent, trained, and experienced." He probed the door with his fingers. "It's… We can't walk through this time. They know what we've been doing."

Troubled. He looked troubled. Indecisive maybe? But they had to get in! Who knew what was going on in there?

"Draco," she said, approaching him and feeling slightly panicked. "We have to go in now. They're alone!"

Slowly, he raised his eyes to hers. "By now, they know what we are and what we're capable of. They'll be ready for us. We should wait for back-up." And he shot red sparks down the hall so that the Order would know where to follow.

What was wrong with him? They could take out a room of twenty in several seconds.

"Draco, we _are _the back-up!" Was he nervous about seeing Voldemort? He wasn't afraid of death, she knew that much. And neither was she. What had gotten into him?

As she prepared to blast open the door, he pulled her back.

His voice became husky. "Hermione, wait."

She swallowed at the seriousness in his tone and looked up at him. He glanced at the door and then back down at her. He rested his hand on the nape of her neck, not quite ready to release her, and stroked her collarbone with his thumb. The look on his face was resigned.

He slid his hand to the nape of her neck and then fisted her hair possessively. "You're strong."

She stared up at him, bewildered. He was stating it like a fact, as much to reassure her as he was himself. His eyes were loving, admiring, caring. She was going to ask him what he meant, when two agonized screams rang out from behind the door.

Her stomach dropped at the sound of her best friends being tortured. She had to get to them _now_. She broke away from him and held her hand up to the door, summoning her magic.

His eyes widened and he struggled to turn her towards him. "Hermione, wait! You're not think-"

She shrugged him off, Harry and Ron's screams were causing her adrenaline to run on overdrive. "Kill the snake!" she ordered him.

"Hermione!" he shouted as she blasted the door open. "No!"

Nearly twenty Death Eaters were standing in a circle with Voldemort at the head, laughing. Harry and Ron were in the middle, writhing on the floor in pain. In a flash, she erected a shield between them and the curses being aimed at them, healed their wounds and pulled them to their feet.

She looked for Draco, who was on the other side of the room, hands bloody, and standing over torn pieces of Nagini's body. He wasn't looking at her though, he was looking directly at Ron, who was nodding, wide-eyed. Everything happened so quickly, she didn't have time to process what he was doing or why.

The Death Eaters all raised their wands to the ceiling and chanted as one, their voices deafening.

"_Lumos sol!_"

Her eyes widened in fear and she leapt to attack them, knowing she would never be able to fell them all before the spell started. But Draco hurled himself at her, pinning her to the ground and shielding her with his body. A blinding light filled the room and she erupted in flames. It hurt so much, she couldn't summon the magic necessary to protect herself.

Just as suddenly, she was enveloped in darkness, but she and Draco were still shrieking in pain, clinging to each other while they burned.


	11. Chapter 11  alternate ending

**Chapter Notes:**

I know, I know, it's late coming up. And after I left everyone on such a cliffhanger. I'm really sorry about that! Hopefully the chapters of the original ending will come up more regularly.

**Chapter ****11 - alternate ending**

Harry looked up at Ron, and then down at the husk of a body lying on the floor in front of them. She was completely unrecognizable.

"How can this possibly work?" Ron asked, his voice shaking. "She's… she's…"

Harry studied the grey mass that was once Hermione with determination. "No, I don't think she's dead. Vampires don't have corpses, and _she _still has a body to heal. You see the bits of ash from where he was shielding her?"

Ron looked disbelievingly down at the charred remains before him. "I'll… I'll do anything for her. Here."

He took the knife from Harry and sliced his wrist open, wincing as his blood dropped into what was left of Hermione's mouth. Harry gave him his belt and he wrapped it around his forearm, tightening it so that the flow would increase.

The two of them watched the lifeless husk in front of them intently for a few seconds. Nothing appeared to be happening at first, and then, to their astonishment, they saw the beginnings of renewal and regrowth spread throughout her body. Their eyes widened.

"Thank Merlin," Harry said as he sighed in relief. "How did you know that eclipse spell?"

A tinge of shame and regret appeared in Ron's eyes. "Malfoy told me through some form of Legilimancy right before you killed Voldemort. He knew he wouldn't live long enough for his spell to keep them covered and needed me to recast it." His voice turned soft. "He really loved her."

They looked down. As the flow of blood increased, so did the pace of her body's regrowth. They could see shriveled, blackened, papery substances slowly inflate and become tissue, muscle, blood vessels and organs. Her charred bones became whole and white. They could see her fangs clearly now.

"Harry, I don't think I can watch this!" Ron said, clutching his stomach.

Alarmed, Harry looked up at him, his skin was much paler than usual, and he was swaying. "Here, Ron, you gave her too much. Let's switch. Take this."

He handed Ron the bottle of blood replenishing potion, cut his wrist and held it over Hermione's mouth. Her body began to fill out and take shape. Skin nucleated and grew, covering her insides.

Ron took off the belt and wrapped it around Harry's arm, increasing the flow. Still feeling woozy, he drank another two bottles of blood replenishing potion. Suddenly, Hermione's limbs began twitching and her body convulsed.

"Harry!" Ron yelled, terrified. "What's wrong with her?"

Harry shook his head, intent on making sure that his blood continued pouring into her mouth despite the erratic movements.

"Don't know; hold her still."

Ron pinned her down but her hands shot out and she grabbed Harry's arm, sinking her teeth into his flesh. He grunted in pain as she drank.

Hair sprouted out of her scalp, and her external features took shape and became more recognizable. Harry tried to pull away, but she was much too strong now that she was able to move her limbs.

"Ron!" he called, "Bind her! And I'll need a few."

She opened her eyes and Harry looked down at her in relief. She looked completely feral, and was growling while sucking from him, but she was alive and functioning.

"Hey," he said, brushing her hair back tenderly, "sorry about this." She didn't alter her death grip on his arm, or give any indication that she had understood him.

"_Incarcerous Argentum_!"

She screamed as the silver cut into her body and he pulled his arm away. He could see her body degenerating again before his eyes and his voice became panicky.

"Hurry, Ron!"

They switched, with Ron now giving her blood, and she began to immediately heal again. Harry took his share of the blood replenishing potions. He didn't realize how much she had sapped his energy until after being reinvigorated.

She leaned upward, straining to reach Ron's wrist and snapping at the air in between swallows.

"Cover her," Ron said in a strained voice.

Harry looked down, and immediately shut his eyes to block out the image of Hermione, now completely healed, naked and writhing next to him. Quickly, he conjured a blanket and spread it over her.

Ron looked up at him. "When do we stop?"

"Good question." Harry pressed down on his wound, trying to stop the flow until it would be his turn. "I guess, until she doesn't need anymore."

"How much will she need? We might have to get more people, more potions."

"That's enough," came a scratchy voice from below. His wrist tingled as Hermione's magic healed the wound.

They both looked down, and at the sight of Hermione's smiling eyes, an incredible wave of relief washed over them.

She grunted, trying to tolerate the pain from the binding.

"Can we release you?" Ron asked.

"Yes, I've fed enough," her voice was still scratchy. Ron reached for his wand and then she shook her head. A resigned expression was on her face. "No, I don't know. Draco would be a better judge. Ask him."

Harry looked up at Ron, whose mouth had formed a flat line.

She lifted her head up. "He didn't make it?" She looked between Harry and Ron, neither of who could meet her eyes. She laid her head back down and turned it to the side.

"I'm sorry, Hermione," Ron said sincerely, "He… he gave his life for you."

Harry could see tears slowly leaking from her eyes, but she made no sound, she made no movement.

He squeezed her shoulder. "He won't be remembered as a Death Eater. We'll see to that."

Her voice came out flat. "He knew, you know. Before we even entered the room. He knew what would happen."

She squeezed her eyes shut, and Harry watched silent sobs wrack her body.

Harry looked down at her. He didn't know what to do. She was obviously in so much more pain than the silver could inflict upon her. He felt an empty feeling in his gut. It was just like Lupin said. She had sacrificed her human life to win the war. But now she was alone. She couldn't be with friends, she couldn't be with family, and she had lost Draco – her only companion. He felt her loss and ached for her.

"Hermione," Ron leaned down, unsure of himself, and then wrapped her in a strong and tender hug.

"No, Ron!" she protested, tears streaming out of her eyes. "I'm not safe!"

"Shhhh," he said and held her close. Her sobbing became louder and Harry cradled her too.

The three lay there for a while, holding onto one another while Hermione cried until she wasn't able. After a few heaving shudders, she spoke in a soft, raspy voice.

"My… My parents. How can I..." They pulled away from her. She was exhausted, resigned and in pain from the silver.

Ron clasped her hand and give it a light squeeze. "We'll take care of them."

"Tell them..." she squeezed her eyes shut and heaved another sob. "Tell them that I love them. That I'm sorry for everything and…" she swallowed. "Tell them that I died."

"Died a hero," Harry said, his throat constricting as he struggled not to cry himself.

"Like Draco," she whispered. She shut her eyes tight while a few more tears leaked out. Harry tightened his embrace and Ron followed suit. He felt her body shudder and then relax while they held her.

ooooooooooooooooooo

Six months later, Harry and Ron were again at the kitchen table reading a letter from Hermione, which came with several pictures. She had been putting the camera they sent her to good use, and they had started filling an album to document her travels.

Ron was holding up several photos at the same time and studying them with a furrowed brow. "They all look the same. And they might as well be Muggle pictures; nothing's moving."

Harry grabbed a photo and studied it. "It's Antarctica. What did you expect?"

"I don't know… penguins?"

"She's probably eating them."

Ron grimaced and Harry pulled out some more of her photos.

"Wow, Ron, look at this." The two looked at the slowly rotating bright blue hemisphere of Earth: so bright against the inky black of space. "She must have charmed the picture so it would rotate faster."

Ron lightly touched the rotating globe and said, "She's been spending an awful lot of time between those two places. I mean, I know that she wants to keep away from people, but doesn't this seem a little extreme? She hasn't mentioned going anywhere else. There's just… nothing _there_. Her photos are bleak. Empty. I'm not exactly one to look for hidden meanings but…"

Harry furrowed his brow. "Yeah, I know. Are you worried?"

Ron picked up Hermione's letter and reread it, sombrely. "Harry… she's still mourning him. She doesn't say it, but… her letter sounds forced. It's not really her. You don't think she'd…" His voice trailed off. He didn't want to voice his thought; it was too horrible.

Harry eyes snapped to Ron's. "No. No. She wouldn't. She'll get through it. I just… wish we could be there for her more. I wish she would come."

"She won't," Ron said darkly. "Not after Neville."

The two sat in silence, looking at the stark beauty of her photos.

Ron looked up. "Do you think she's read the books?"

Harry shook his head to the negative. "She would have told us. You know how she is."

Suddenly, Hedwig flew through the window holding a completely ordinary white envelope. She dropped it in front of Harry. He flipped it over, but didn't recognize the return address.

"Huh." Inserting his finger into the flap, he broke the seal of the envelope and pulled out the letter. He got so much shit in the mail nowadays since Voldemort's defeat. Product endorsement offers, fan mail, job offers, marriage proposals…

He quickly skimmed the letter, smiled, and went back to read it more slowly.

"What does it say?" Ron asked, reaching to yank the letter out of Harry's grasp.

Harry stood up, deftly dodging Ron's hand. "'Dear Mr. Potter,'" he began in a mock serious tone, "'I was most deeply honored to hear that the Boy-Who'—Bugger him. I'm twenty-four years old. Why do people still insist on calling me that?"

"Skip the dramatic rendition and tell me what it says," Ron said impatiently.

"We've got Damocles Belby on board."

Ron gave a whoop.

"He says that he's been too idle since he completed the Wolfsbane potion, and that a potion to temper the cravings of vampires would be a"—he adopted his mock serious tone again—"fine academic venture."

Harry read the rest of the letter eagerly. "He says that he'll need sufficient funding and labor at his institute, but that it shouldn't be a problem if we would work on bringing in potential investors with him."

Ron glanced down at his worn T-shirt and groaned. "I'll have to get my dress robes out again, won't I? It will be just like all those damn awards ceremonies. Any news of Hermione's inheritance? That would help."

Harry shook his head to the negative. "The Ministry is making it difficult; trying to find a loophole. Percy is doing his best."

"They'd love nothing better than to get their hands on the Malfoy fortune. If Hermione were able to appear before them, it would make things so much easier. Ungrateful bastards." Ron snorted in disgust. "So what else does Belby say?"

Harry continued reading through the letter. "That there are several different angles from which to attack the problem… eager to embark on this endeavor… virgin field of research… He sounds just a bit too excited about this, if you ask me."

"Good," Ron said. "I want Hermione back and… we owe it to her."

"We do."

Oooooooooooooooo

_"Hermione, wait! You're not think-"_

_"Kill the snake!"_

_"Hermione! No!"_

She didn't fault herself for her rashness. Harry and Ron might have died if they had waited any longer. But she still wondered if she had taken a few minutes to think things through, maybe they _all_ would have lived. With all of her power and strength, she couldn't predict the future, or know what would have been.

_"I doubt I'll live that long."_

Hermione leaned back against the rock, looking at how the skin of her limbs was highlighted against the bluish glow of Earth. Everything was silent and desolate. Nothing had changed here, and yet everything had changed.

_"This is… this is _our_ place. It's pure. Untouched. After the battle, we'll do whatever you want. I don't care, so long as we're together."_

Her stomach churned. She felt so empty and hollow inside. She would never be whole again. To her left, she saw a few of Draco's footprints in the grey dust. They were untouched, preserved by the lack of motion, the lack of life, and the desolation. Tenderly, she reached down and placed her hand inside the depression of dust.

_"This is the most real sensation I've had since... then."_

Extending her index finger, she traced the outline of his heel, his instep and toes. His footprints would remain here undisturbed for quite some time. Until the next asteroid, she supposed. Or maybe one day, an astronaut would pass by this very spot, wondering how it was possible that footprints from a human's bare foot had come to pass here.

_"Thanks for understanding. For helping me through this."_

She chuckled, despite herself, and then a few tears began to spill. They evaporated as soon as they lost contact with her body, never reaching the dusty, rocky ground. Hugging her chest and bent over her knees, she started to cry silently.

_"I didn't mean to… Hermione… I'm sorry... For everything."_

She squeezed her eyes shut and ground her teeth together, sobbing so hard that she fell over onto her side, clutching her body in a foetal position.

_"You're different. I've always wanted you."_

She cried wretchedly and her stomach heaved. After a time, she felt that she didn't have any tears left to shed. She bit her lip and whimpered as the occasional shudder passed through her.

_"I wish… I wish that things were different for us."_

_"I love you too, Draco."_

Opening her eyes, she looked at the camera that Harry and Ron sent her. She could see her tear streaked face reflected in the lens. She wondered if Draco could see her now and wondered what he would think. If he were alive, he would hate himself for what she was going through.

_"I just… I just want you to be safe."_

She thought about what he would have done if their positions were reversed.

_"So you'd off yourself if you were alone?"_

_"After a time. It's not really… much of a life without the people you love. And I already miss the sunrise."_

And here she was. Completely and utterly alone.

She thought back to the night of the battle.

_"You're strong."_

Was she? She felt like a dry, brittle leaf that would crumble at the slightest touch. Sometimes, she wished that Harry and Ron had just left her to die.

She stared at her reflection in the camera lens for a while longer, and watched herself rub her eyes. She sat up and gazed at the bright blue Earth. It was rotating and it was changing. It was limitless, like her. She glanced over to her right to the stack of packages that had remained untouched since Harry and Ron had started sending them to her a few months ago. They were books, she knew, and she hadn't even opened them.

_You're strong._

Maybe it was time.

Taking a breath, she reached out and brought the first package onto her lap, and tore it open. It was a Muggle textbook on geology from the University of Cambridge Press. She flipped through it, looking at color pictures of various rock formations, and noticed their captions stating their locations. She hadn't been to any of those places yet. She had wanted to go... with Draco.

She flipped it shut and read the back cover. It looked like a very comprehensive introduction that any freshman would need.

An interesting choice. This would have been the most recent book they sent.

More curious, she wiped her eyes, pulled another package over and tore it open. The book was published by some niche scientific society that she had never heard of and was entitled "Recent Findings in Antarctica." She flipped through it. This was very advanced, very dense reading. She didn't even know if she'd be able to comprehend it, but... she'd try. She had to try, didn't she? How else could she continue to exist if she didn't?

She put that book to the side and picked up another package. This was a textbook for a university-level class in Astronomy. She had already taken Astronomy at Hogwarts, but the Muggle science would be completely different. Fascinating. Draco could hardly believe how much more Muggles knew about the universe than wizards.

Hermione closed her eyes and took another breath. Harry and Ron were incredibly thoughtful in their choices. She wished that she had them to help her through this.

She pulled over another book from the pile and it seemed that each tome was thicker than the next. This one was entitled "Ecosystems," also from the University of Cambridge Press, and was filled with colourful photographs of plants and animals, including captions stating the location of the subject. She paged through, admiring the pictures, before she turned another page and paused. It was of several colourful fish swimming in a coral reef. She looked at the caption and saw that it was from the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. She could… go anywhere she wanted. She could swim in shallow rivers and lakes; she could venture to the deepest parts of the ocean.

She felt a surge of love for them. There was so much knowledge that she could acquire, so much that she could explore without having to be in contact with humans. And what's more, she literally had all the time in the world to do it. If only Draco...

If only.

_You're strong._

The thoughtfulness of their choices made her want to start crying all over again. She closed the book on Ecosystems and eagerly brought over the next to last one on the pile.

This book was a compendium of knowledge on vampires. She really should have gotten something like this a long time ago, and scolded herself mentally for being so lax. She opened it and saw that Harry and Ron had enscribed a brief message for her on the inside:

_We hope it will help you understand yourself more. We tried reading it, but it was too long. You'll have to come back and explain it to us._

_Love,_

_Harry and Ron_

She chuckled lightly, and wiped away the tears that ran down her cheek anew. She looked over at the last package. This would be the first book that they had sent her. Smiling, she lifted the flap. When she saw what it was, she laughed out loud and then sighed in contentment. A rush of warmth passed through her body at the sudden swell of love she felt for Harry and Ron. They had sent her her very own, well-worn copy of _Hogwarts, A History_.

She paged through it, feeling a comforting nostalgia while looking at the pictures of familiar passageways, portraits, gargoyles, and statues. Tucked into the back flap were two pieces of parchment: one torn, and one neatly folded that had obviously been magicked. She took out the torn piece first.

_We thought that this would keep you company since you don't have us to pester you right now. You're not alone, Hermione. We'll always be here for you. Please consider coming back. We'll find a way to make it work. We think about you all the time and miss you._

_Love,_

_Harry and Ron_

_P.S. We have all of your old textbooks; let us know if you want them. Attached is a charmed parchment that Madam Pince prepared for you. It's a list of the entire collection in the Hogwarts library. If you want a book, we'll get it for you._

_P.P.S. Since you have superpowers, it's about time you learned how to ride a broom._

-fin (Alternate ending)-

**Chapter End Notes:**

*Sound of vigorous typing at the keyboard, interrupted by a door slamming. Mistress Lynn jumps a good 6 inches into the air off of her couch.*

Draco: What the fuck is this?

Mistress Lynn: Excuse me?

Draco *looking incredulous*: You killed me off!

Mistress Lynn: Umm… yeah. It's a tragedy, somebody has to die. Now get back in the story, we have another ending to do.

Draco *crossing his arms*: I _know_ what a goddamn tragedy is. Kill someone else. I'm not doing a fucking thing until you write me back in.

Mistress Lynn *with a pitiful attempt at coyness*: It's only a tragedy when _you_ die. Look at how heartbroken the readers are! Wait until you see how the reviewers-

Draco *eyebrow raised*: Are you trying to butter me up?

Mistress Lynn *sighing*: Yes. Now will you _please _get back in the story?

Draco: Not unless the second ending is better.

Mistress Lynn *angling the screen so that Draco can't see*: Define… "better."

Draco *narrowing eyes*: I'd say that after the treatment you gave me in the first ending, you owe me.

Mistress Lynn *coughing to cover up laughter*: Owe you?

Draco: Big time.

Mistress Lynn: What did you have in mind?

Draco: Nothing less than three chapters of debauchery with several big breasted young women- *Mistress Lynn looks forlornly down at her 34 barely-B's* -would get me back.

Mistress Lynn *typing while reading aloud from the screen*: One day, Draco found himself staring at _Ronald Weasley _in a way which was quite uncharacteristic for –

Draco *looking a bit unnerved*: Wait, what are you-

Mistress Lynn: -noticed that his red hair and freckles were actually quite attractive-

Draco *uncrossing arms*: Hey! I didn't sign up for this!

Mistress Lynn: -realized that his animosity towards the youngest male Weasley all those years at Hogwarts was really an expression of his-

Draco: Alright, alright, ALRIGHT! I'll get back in! Just… *shudders* delete that, will you?

Mistress Lynn *smiling sweetly*: Done.

Draco: Bitch.

(btw – Must give credit where credit is due. I first saw an author/character dialogue schpiel written by the great tamlane, who unfortunately doesn't write fics anymore. Somebody needs to go find that girl and get her to complete Diagon Venus. And pleeeeeeease tell me what you guys think! I don't mind shamelessly begging for reviews! Did you like this ending? How about those of you who preferred the original ending because the HEA didn't fit the story? Or those of you who preferred this ending precisely because it was a HEA – "was" being the operative word. I'd love to hear your comments!)


	12. Chapter 4  Original ending

**Author's Chapter Notes:**

Sooo... going all the way back to where we left off at the end of Chapter 3. You're welcome to reread those chapters if you want, to get into the mood, but it's not required.

Enjoy!

**Chapter 4 - Original ending**

Numb and exhausted, Hermione finally got up and walked around the perimeter of Hogwarts, dragging her feet and wiping her eyes. She arrived at the train station, counted out seventeen guardrails from the south end, and clasped the rail in her hand. Recognizing her magical signature, the guardrail glowed, and the empty train station disappeared in a whirl of dark swirling color to be replaced by an alleyway roughly a half mile from Number 12 Grimmauld Place.

Feeling like an Inferius, she walked the rest of the way back and climbed the steps of the front porch. Her tears had dried, but she knew that it was obvious that she had been crying. Not much to be done about that. She took a deep steadying breath and knocked. There was a pause, and then she heard a flurry of noises muffled by the dark green oak door. Finally, Mrs. Weasley's voice sounded groggily.

"Who is it?"

"Hermione," she answered, but her throat was dry, and not much noise came out.

_"Who?"_the voice called out again, more firmly this time. Hermione could hear more footsteps approach from the other side.

"Hermione," she said in a louder voice, not without considerable effort.

There was a cacophony of excited voices talking over each other as the door began to open. Before it could open more than a crack, the door slammed closed with a bang and she heard Lupin's gruff voice. "Ask her."

"But Remus!" she heard Mrs. Weasley protest.

"She could be injured!" Harry countered.

"Ask. Her."

Ron's voice rang out next. "Who did you turn into the first time you took Polyjuice potion?"

She smiled ruefully at the memory. It was a trick question. Ron could be quite clever when he wanted to be. She raised her voice again and answered, "Millicent Bulstrode's cat."

At this, the door flung open and she felt herself being pulled in and smothered by a throng of warm bodies, all hugging and kissing her. Questions and exclamations sounded in her ears, much faster than she could process.

"Where have you _been!_"

"I was at—"

"— have you seen Padma?"

"No, she—"

"Are you hurt?"

"I don't… no—"

"Was it the Death Eaters?"

"Yes, but—"

"— wearing a Hogwarts uniform?"

"I—"

"Is that a _Slytherin _tie?"

She put her face in her hands and groaned.

"Back off, you lot! Give her some air!"

She felt herself being wrapped in Mrs. Weasley's soft, motherly embrace and shuffling upstairs to her room. Harry and Ron immediately followed but the matron shooed them away, closing the door in their faces. "Go away; we don't even know if she's hurt yet."

"She said she wasn't hurt!" Ron countered, but she silenced him with a glare.

"Can't you see she's not feeling quite right? Leave us alone for a while; you can have her later."

She pushed them out and shut the door on their loud protests. Hermione didn't much want to talk to Mrs. Weasley, but she was thankful for efforts in evoking quiet. Feeling dazed, she sat down on her bed and watched Mrs. Weasley cast an imperturbable charm on the door. She heard a loud curse as the two hovering on the other side of the door realized that Extendable Ears wouldn't work now. Her lips formed a half smile. You couldn't get anything past this woman. She _had _raised seven Weasley children, after all – including the twins.

Mrs. Weasley cast a silencing charm on the door to muffle their protestations. "Now then, dear." The bed creaked and angled down slightly as Mrs. Weasley sat next to her. She took Hermione's hand in hers and looked her directly in the eyes. "Are you alright? Are you injured?"

Hermione tried to answer, but her voice rasped and she had to clear it before speaking. "Yes, I'm fine. It was just," she paused, "a very exhausting experience."

Mrs. Weasley's eyes were searching her face and her body, trying to see what was amiss. Feeling uncomfortable under the scrutiny, Hermione looked down. "How about I make you a cup of tea and bring you some biscuits?" She patted her hand. "You get off to bed and we'll talk in the morning."

"No, Mrs. Weasley, I need…" She took a breath. Mrs. Weasley looked at her patiently. "I have to tell you. There's a lot we don't know. And then…" She cleared her throat again. "You need to tell the rest. Tonight. I just can't face them right now."

Mrs. Weasley's lips were parted slightly. Hermione could tell she was very anxious, and forcing herself not to ask too many questions. "All right, then." She waited for Hermione to talk, but Hermione couldn't quite find the words. All she could see was Draco disappearing into the Forbidden Forest, leaving her forever.

She squeezed her eyes tight and felt more hot tears spill.

"Shhhhh… there, there." Mrs. Weasley drew her into a maternal hug and stroked her hair. Hermione let her body relax and lay limp against her plump, comforting body. "You don't have to say anything now, dear. Just get some—"

"Nnn… no." Hermione wiped her eyes and then hiccupped a sob. "It was Padma."

"Padma? Where is she? Was she with you? We've been look—"

"Traitor," she said, rubbing her eyes again. "She betrayed me."

Mrs. Weasley didn't say anything for a minute, and then asked, "Are you sure it was her?" Her ring snagged in Hermione's curls and she winced as Mrs. Weasley extracted her fingers.

"Yes," Hermione said, her voice muffled. "She knew about the time that Ginny…" Her voice trailed off.

She felt Mrs. Weasley tense, her hand pause in mid-air.

"She knew," she whispered, not continuing the sentence.

Mrs. Weasley resumed stroking her hair, more gently now. "So where is Padma now?"

Hermione sat up and pressed her palms to her eyes. They were swollen and itchy from all the tears. "I don't know. I didn't see her. I should have asked… I didn't think…"

"You can't think of everything all of the time; especially considering the circumstances," Mrs. Weasley said as she waved her wand in front of Hermione's face.

Gradually, the itching stopped and the swelling went down. Hermione removed her hands and saw that her vision was clear and the blurriness of her tears gone. She gave Mrs. Weasley a grateful smile. "Thanks."

"So where have you been all this time?"

Hermione's head snapped up. "What?"

"You've been gone for a week, dear."

Hermione felt her stomach lurch. "A… a week?"

"You don't remember?"

Her voice came out in a rush. "No! I thought I was just there the night! I need…" She looked around, searching for what she knew wasn't there. "I need to get a wand! I have to talk with Harry and Ron! The mission! We need to —"

Mrs. Weasley caught Hermione's hands and pressed them down to her lap. Hermione felt like a frantic mess, and that must have shown in her eyes. Mrs. Weasley gave her hands a light squeeze. "You _need _to rest. Why don't you just lie down—"

"No, let me finish." She felt that she would start crying again. She had already started to speak and didn't want to have to rehash the events of the night again. "Please." Mrs. Weasley didn't say anything; she just pursed her lips and nodded.

"They brought me to Malfoy Manor."

Mrs. Weasley's eyes widened in surprise, but she didn't comment on the fact that they had thought the Manor to be abandoned.

"Did they hurt you?"

Hermione looked down at her hands. "No, it wasn't like that. I…" She wasn't sure how much she should tell, or how much she wanted to tell either.

"Did they… force you?" Mrs. Weasley asked with a tone that was too light, feigning much more nonchalance than she must have felt.

Hermione felt her eyes close involuntarily as she remembered Draco's tongue curling back into his mouth when he first tasted her blood, and the look in his eyes. Unbidden, images came to her of Draco kissing her, Draco licking her, Draco biting her, and Draco thrusting into her. His moans of ecstasy as she drank from him echoed in her ears. She opened her eyes to see Mrs. Weasley searching her face again.

"I… no. Not really. It's… complicated."

Mrs. Weasley's eyes hardened and the grip on her hands tightened slightly. Hermione swallowed; she'd have to tell them about Draco. They needed to know; she couldn't determine if the lack of knowledge would harm them one day.

"No, Mrs. Weasley, really. He didn't… he let me go. He brought me back safely to the Hogwarts Portkey."

"Who did, dear?"

She felt her voice constrict as she said his name. "Draco Malfoy."

Mrs. Weasley knitted her brows in concern and Hermione pulled her hands back.

"Draco Malfoy?"

"He's a… a vampire now."

"You can't be serious!" Mrs. Weasley gasped.

"And a very strong wizard. The change has amplified his magic. He performs non-verbal spells _wandlessly_ with more ease and power than we do with wands."

She looked incredulous. "How is that even possible? I thought–"

"I don't know, but I've seen it. He's very powerful."

"Then why hasn't he been fighting?"

Hermione looked pleadingly into Mrs. Weasley's disbelieving eyes. "The rest weren't aware and… he didn't let them know. I've been telling everyone all these years. He doesn't care for their cause; it was only his parents he worried about."

"So what has he been doing for them?"

"What would a vampire do as a Death Eater? Torturing, executing… I don't rightly know. I don't think I want to know."

"Is that why you were brought to him?"

Hermione nodded and looked at her hands.

"But instead of killing you, he… let you go," Mrs. Weasley said, searching Hermione's face. Hermione nodded again, wordlessly.

"So why have you been crying, dear? What did he do to you? Did he..."

Hermione took a deep breath and looked into Mrs. Weasley's sympathetic eyes.

"He…" she hiccupped and a sob broke through. She couldn't keep it in anymore. "He left!" Mrs. Weasley looked surprised, not expecting that answer at all but drew her into a warm embrace just the same.

"He… left?"

She spoke through her crying. "I tried to persuade him to come to our side, to fight with us. I thought he would! But he said he didn't think he'd be able to control… he thought that he would…" Her shoulders heaved with another sob. "And now, he… he's _gone!_" Her voice cracked, and she felt the tears streaming down her face anew. Mrs. Weasley tightened her hold and slowly rocked her.

"Shhh," Mrs. Weasley said, stroking her hair. "Hush, now."

She held her for a few moments more while Hermione's sobs weakened and the tears stopped coming. They sat there for a few minutes in silence before Mrs. Weasley spoke again. "You'd best get to bed, you'll feel stronger tomorrow after a good rest. Let's get you out of that uniform."

Hermione stood up and started undressing herself. She felt like a ragdoll as Mrs. Weasley began tugging on her sleeves, hurrying the process along. She glanced around for her nightclothes and smiled gratefully as they were pressed into her hands.

"Are you sure you don't want anything to eat?" She could see Mrs. Weasley checking her body surreptitiously for bruises as pulled the plaid flannel nightshirt over her head.

Hermione shook her head to the negative. "No, thanks."

After slipping on her pajamas, Hermione crawled under the covers and Mrs. Weasley kissed her forehead.

"I won't tell them about that last part," she whispered, giving Hermione a pitying look and turned towards the bedroom door.

"Thank you," Hermione whispered back.

She opened the door and Hermione could see Ron and Harry's heads straining to see into the darkness of the bedroom past Mrs. Weasley's plump frame before she shut the door behind her. The closing of the door was immediately followed by mutinous shouting. Hermione smiled at their insistence on seeing her. It was good to know that she was loved so deeply, but she just couldn't deal with Harry and Ron right now, and Mrs. Weasley seemed to understand that.

As she drifted off to sleep, she could hear snippets of voices travel up from the kitchen.

"Padma did _what?_"

"—blamed her for Parvati—"

"—a bloody _vampire_?"

"Watch your language! You're not so old that I won't—"

Hermione turned over under her duvet to look out the window.

"—let her go?"

"—not sure what he did to her—"

"—how vampires are Molly, don't be naïve."

As her eyes slowly drifted shut, she thought she saw a hooded figure standing on the rooftop of the adjacent house.

"—don't think she remembers—"

"—smells different."

It was dark and she was tired. Her eyes must be playing tricks on her. She fingered the green and silver tie that Draco had given her and drifted off to sleep.

Ooooo

Harry and Ron were sitting on her bed, having brought breakfast up to her. Or maybe it was lunch. The sun looked to be fairly high in the sky. Harry was studying her, trying to see if her expressions would reveal what Mrs. Weasley had left out, or what Hermione wouldn't say. They thought she couldn't remember everything. She had heard them discussing her down in the kitchen. They were trying to figure out exactly what had happened to her. She felt like she was under a microscope.

"Are you okay?" Harry asked for the third time.

"I'm _fine_, Harry," she said, trying to keep the annoyance out of her voice and failing.

Ron glanced at Harry with an I-told-you-so look on his face.

"Can we get you anything?" Ron asked cautiously.

Hermione gave a tired sigh. "Food and rest should be enough. Thanks."

"Are you sure you're not in pain? We have plenty of potions and salves. You're not… wounded… are you?"

She saw his eyes slip furtively to her neck. Her hair was pulled back. If Draco hadn't healed her wounds so proficiently they would be clearly seen. At least Ron had the decency to blush when she caught him searching.

"No, not wounded. Would you feel better if I was?" Ron's face fell and she immediately regretted her snappish words.

"Come on, Hermione," Harry chastised her. "We care about you. We know you've been though a lot, but you don't have to be such a…" his voice trailed off.

"Bitch?" she said with a half grin.

He gave her a sheepish smile and pushed his glasses up his nose, neither confirming nor denying.

"Look. Harry, Ron, I'm sorry. It's just… Can we _please_ discuss something _important?_. The diadem, for example?"

"Destroyed," Ron answered, struggling to keep his bright blue eyes on her face instead of her neck. "But we had a hell of a time doing it without you."

She sipped her tea. "And you confirmed the cup is in the Lestrange vault?"

"It's in the vault alright," Harry said. His eyes shifted up from her neck. He had been looking when he thought she hadn't been paying attention. "But there was no time to plan the break in; we were busy."

Hermione raised her eyebrows.

"Searching for you and Padma," he continued.

"Oh," she said quietly, and then gave them a small smile. It was good to know that they could still function without her. They didn't give themselves enough credit. "That's good. When will Bill get here? We'll need his help to break into Gringotts."

"He said he'll be here by tonight," Ron said, and then continued cautiously. "Are you sure you're up to this?"

"Yes," she answered, trying to keep the annoyance out of her voice. She noticed that Ron and Harry were fidgeting more than usual. Not a good sign. Their restraint was failing.

Ron continued, despite her tone. "He has all of the floor plans and an interactive map of the caverns below that he got from one of his Goblin contacts."

Hermione nodded while swallowing her porridge. "That's good. I'd hate to get lost down there. Those tunnels go on for miles."

She had just raised another spoonful to her mouth when Ron suddenly blurted out, "Did he drink from you?"

Her hand paused, and then fell down. The spoon clinked in the bowl. She sighed, closed her eyes, and then opened them again. Both Harry and Ron were staring at her, not letting her off the hook.

"Yes."

She watched Ron's eyes flash in anger and his hands ball into fists. Harry swallowed and continued the query. "And did he—"

"Look," she said, cutting him off. "He's a vampire. That's what vampires do. He drank from me, he healed me, and then he let me go. He's not truly on their side; he never has been. I've been telling you that all along. And I…I…" She didn't want to start crying again, so she summoned a tone of reprimand to her voice, hoping she didn't sound too defensive. "I _really _don't want to talk about it anymore."

Ron was glaring daggers at her. Frustrating as they were, she knew it came from the protective love that the three felt towards each other. They had been through so much together. She brought her eyes to Harry, who was observing her with an odd expression, one that unsettled her more than Ron's anger.

She supposed that they would more or less guess what had happened. Ron would be in denial for a while, not quite thinking beyond getting revenge. But Harry, he knew. She could see it in his eyes. They had studied vampires in Defence Against the Dark Arts. She shifted uncomfortably on her bed; Harry's gaze was making her queasy. She could deal with Ron's anger, but she couldn't sit here with Harry looking at her like that.

She climbed out of bed and headed for the bathroom.

"I'm going out for a walk."

Ron piped up. "Do you want us to—"

"No," she snapped. She stopped at the doorway, closed her eyes and took a breath. "No, thank you," she said with genuine contriteness. She turned around to look at her two best friends. They were only trying to help her, to support her. "I'll see you this evening when Bill comes."

Ron and Harry watched Hermione as she exited the room and shut the bathroom door behind her. A few minutes later, they heard her turn on the shower.

Ron stared at the doorway that she had just exited, and then exhaled sharply through his nostrils. "Harry, I'm going to kill him."

"He's already dead," Harry quipped.

"Not dead enough."

**Chapter End Notes:**

Do the last few lines sound familiar? ;)  
>What do you guys think? Is it weird going back to this after all that's happened in the alternate ending?<p> 


	13. Chapter 5  original ending

**Chapter 5 – Original ending**

Hermione stared at the rolls of parchment on the table, along with Bill, Ron and Harry. She had been resting her head in her hand, and shifted positions. Harry eyed the red print she left on her cheek with amusement.

"Did Lavender bitch-slap you again?"

"Piss off."

Ron snorted and she gave him a withering glare, which did nothing to curtail his laughter. She didn't exactly remember how their drunken game of Exploding Snap had descended into her and Lavender wrestling on the ground, but neither Harry nor Ron had attempted to stop the cat-fight. Rather, they had taken bets on who would win.

_Men._

She didn't remember who had won, and neither one would tell her who they had bet on. One of these days, she was going to find out. That would be a justified use of their Veritaserum stores, wouldn't it?

"Let's get back to work, shall we?" Bill interrupted. "I don't have a lot of time. Unless…" he raised an eyebrow at Hermione, "you want to invite Lavender over. That might be worth –"

"It was _two_ months ago. Can't you let –"

Bill turned to Harry and Ron, cutting her off. "You don't know how much I wish I would've been here."

"Best. Night. Ever." Ron smirked at him.

"One more word and I'll bitch-slap the three of _you._"

"Would you now?" Ron taunted her cockily. "You're a bit short."

Harry and Bill snickered.

Hermione smiled sweetly. "Who said I was going to slap your face?"

The snickering turned into guffaws.

"So that's how you keep these two in line, eh?" Bill elbowed Ron in the ribs.

"Oi! We don't-"

"If you ask me, they enjoy a firm hand."

"That's what she said."

"That's what _Lavender_ said."

And so the jibes continued.

It was the fourth night that they had been poring over the plans into the wee hours of the morning. Even with Bill's help, they still had several points where they would not be able to break through, and that was assuming that the Horcrux itself wasn't guarded. They were frustrated, but at the same time motivated by the impending destruction of the sixth Horcrux. Joking around relieved the tension somewhat, and helped distract her from her loss.

"Uhhh… Remus?" she heard Tonks call from the foyer.

"Yes?" he answered, jogging down the stairs. Hermione scribbled a few notes on the side of the map. Harry and Bill were arguing over how best to get around the dragon, and wondering if it might be helpful to bring Charlie in for a consultation.

Ron was making a parchment aeroplane.

"Someone is standing outside against the lamppost. Has been there for about thirty minutes."

Hermione looked up and met Harry's green eyes, feeling the faintest bits of panic. Were they discovered?

"He's a… I'm fairly sure he's a vampire," Tonks continued, eyeing Hermione.

She felt her face flush, and her pulse race with nervous excitement. Quickly, she got up to look out the window with Harry and Ron right at her heels.

Lupin was already at the window pane, studying the figure with narrowed eyes. "So that's what I smelled earlier…" His eyes swiveled to Hermione, studying her for a few seconds. She flushed under his gaze, and then he turned back to the window.

"He followed you back, Hermione," Harry said, accusingly.

"He couldn't have. I used the Hogwarts Portkey. It wouldn't have worked for him."

"But didn't you say he was more powerful now?" Lupin asked, "Might it be possible?"

Hermione stared at the figure. "I don't know. I don't know what his limits are. I don't know if _he_ knows what his limits are."

"Why doesn't he just come in?" Ron asked. "Does he have to be invited?"

Hermione scoffed, "Where did you ever hear something like that?"

She thought she heard him mutter something about Muggle vampire literature.

She continued sarcastically, "Well. That's a step up from the Quibbler, definitely. What other sources have you been researching, Professor Weasley?"

Ron ignored the barb. He shrugged in answer and said, "So why doesn't he knock? Why not come to the door? Why wait by the lamp post?"

Hermione chewed her lip. "Maybe because of the Fidelius Charm, he can't see the house."

Lupin nodded. "That makes sense. And yet he knows where it is. How is that possible?"

Hermione tried to get a glimpse of Draco's face, but his hood covered his features. "He's related to the Blacks, isn't he?"

Ron snorted. "All the purebloods are related if you go back far enough."

"But how would he know that _we're_ here?" Harry countered.

"I don't know," she said puzzled. "But he's found us out. I'll go see what he wants."

She felt herself being pulled back by Harry who was shaking his head. "Not by yourself, even if he's not one of them."

"I've been surveying the block all night," Tonks added. "He's alone."

"So it appears," Lupin agreed, scanning their surroundings and performing the _Homenum revelio_ charm.

Tonks quirked an eyebrow. "That doesn't detect vampires."

"Apparently not."

Hermione wrenched her arm out of Harry's grip. "Honestly, Harry. I've got a wand now; I'm not defenceless!"

Harry spoke more softly, trying to calm her down. "I just don't want –"

"You're all here if I should need help. He's not likely to be as forthcoming if you lot are with me." She wanted to see Draco, and she wanted to see him alone.

Ron protested, "And what if he hurts you?"

She rounded on him. "I've already been kidnapped; what would be the point in doing so again? He could have hurt me already, but," she felt her throat constrict involuntarily and she could barely get the rest of her sentence out, "but he hasn't."

Harry narrowed his eyes at her. "Why would he do so now? He already had his chance to get information from me."

Harry opened his mouth again, but she cut him off. "You need to be calm around vampires so that _they_ stay calm. You don't want to excite them." She saw Lupin nodding his assent out of the corner of her eye.

"Can you do that?" She looked pointedly at Harry, who didn't answer. She turned to Ron. "You?"

"Yes," Ron answered petulantly.

Hermione rolled her eyes in answer.

Harry crossed his arms in front of him and stared down at her. "Can _you_?"

Slowly, she turned back to look up at Harry. Did he suspect her feelings? She flared her nostrils. "I'm still alive, aren't I? And I didn't even have a wand last time. Let it be, Harry."

"Go out the back." Lupin motioned with his head, not taking his eyes off Draco. "Walk around the block. Dora will tail you at a distance, and we'll be here."

"That's a fair compromise," Hermione said, glaring at Ron.

"But," Ron tried to protest, but Lupin held up his hand. The discussion was over.

Hermione grabbed her scarf and left from the back entrance. Ron glared after her.

_No sense in tempting Draco further_, she thought as she wrapped it around her neck.

Her footsteps echoed on the pavement, and as she rounded the corner, she heard Tonks' footsteps a ways behind her. She looked at her watch. It was nearly two o'clock in the morning. The streets were deserted. Her heart thudded with excitement at the thought of seeing him again, and she took a few calming breaths as he came into view.

As she approached, she saw the figure in hooded black robes shift and turn to her. When she was nearly ten feet away he held out his hand, and she stopped. His eyes glittered from beneath the hood of his robe.

"Wait, it's better if I come to you."

She swallowed. He was tall and very… intimidating in those black robes. Almost like one of _them_. "How did you know where to find me?"

His voice was low and husky as he slowly approached. "I've always known where you were."

_He did?_

"Then why bring me back to Hogwarts?"

He flashed his teeth at her, and she thought she saw blood on them. "London smells of humans. Here."

So quickly that she could barely register it, a small sack with something hard inside came flying at her. With reflexes honed in battle, she caught it midair. She looked down at it curiously and then peered back up at Draco.

"I agree with Dumbledore; the last is Nagini."

_What?_

Quickly, she opened the sack and pulled out the Hufflepuff Cup. It was blackened and crumpled in on itself, as if it were made of paper.

Her heart raced and she felt a rush of adrenaline.

"How did you do that?" she exclaimed in an awed whisper. _How did he know?_

He kept approaching her; her heart thudded loudly in her chest. Instead of answering, he slowly closed the space between them. The bright grey of his eyes bored into hers and he licked his lips.

"I had to see you," he said, his voice the only sound in the late of night. She turned back to see Tonks, roughly fifty feet away. She was watching them.

"That doesn't answer my..."

She felt a slight tug at the scarf on her neck, and turned back to Draco who had now completely loosened the scarf and let it flutter to the ground. The hair on the back of her neck stood on end. Was he going to bite her? She didn't know, but at least she had a wand this time.

She turned her back on Draco to look at Tonks again, who didn't seem perturbed by what he'd just done.

"Draco…" she said, eyeing Tonks curiously. "How did you—?"

She sucked in a breath. His fingers probed the side of her hips and squeezed, tight and possessive. Slowly, he pulled her flush against him, and she was overwhelmed with his presence and his warmth. She inhaled his scent and closed her eyes.

"That thing was evil," his voice rumbled next to her ear. "I almost couldn't destroy it."

"Yes… they affect everyone differently," she answered, doing her best to keep her voice calm. Her heart was thumping wildly in her chest. She did her best to even out her breathing, but it was impossible with him so close. He excited her. She opened her eyes and glanced at the door to number twelve Grimmauld Place. Why weren't they coming? And what of Tonks? She was directly facing her. Surely she could _see._

He pulled her bum against him, eliciting a small whimper from her. She felt her loins tighten in anticipation. He _must_ have fed before coming to see her in order to stay in control. But he had also fed before he attacked her at the manor. She shivered, and wondered what poor soul may have chanced to cross Draco's path.

His fingers probed higher, and his left hand reached underneath the hem of her jumper. She sucked in a breath as he touched the bare skin of her stomach.

His hot breath tickled the shell of her ear. "I could feel it," he whispered as his fingers snuck up her rib cage. His thumb grazed the side of her breast. "It made me think things."

Hermione gently gripped his wrist, hard with bone, tendon and muscle, and tried to bring his hand down from underneath her shirt.

"Draco, please." Tonks was looking directly at them. Why wasn't she doing anything?

She tried to bring his hand down, but he wouldn't let her. She shivered as his fingers teased her, slowly caressing the skin of her stomach, her rib cage, just barely reaching her breasts before descending again. Her body was tense; she dared not move. She didn't know if she should go for her wand, or stay still and hope that he remained in control of himself.

"It wanted me to do things."

His lips were grazing the outer shell of her ear with just the merest of touches.

"It wanted me."

"Yes," she sighed as his hand moved tantalizingly closer to her breast. Her breath hitched, but his hand dropped to caress her side. "You're not the only one. Ron had trouble…"

Her voice trailed off at the feel of his hot breath swirling around her neck. Slow puffs of air tickled her as he exhaled against her skin. Her whole body tingled, but they were in very dangerous territory now. _She_ was in dangerous territory. Why hadn't Harry and Ron come out by now? Why hadn't Tonks come running? Did he place a Confundus Charm on her?

She tried to keep the tremble out of her voice. "Draco," she whimpered as his tongue darted out to lick her ear. "You have to stop. They'll see."

"They won't," he whispered, dipping his fingers below her waistline. "_Glamour._"

She didn't know what to do. He appeared to be in control. Would pushing him away aggravate the situation?

"I want to touch you," he said as his breath sent tingles from her neck all the way down to her core.

"Draco, wait..."

Gently, he pushed her head to a slight angle under his chin, exposing her neck, and dragged his fingers back and forth from her collarbone up the line of her throat to her scalp where he tangled them into her hair. She felt the thumb of his other hand dip beneath the waistline of her trousers. Nimbly, he unbuttoned the top and nudged down the zipper. He pressed against her hips so that her bum rubbed his groin. Her eyes closed and she let out a small moan.

"Are you… in control?" she asked, her voice trembling slightly.

Was he even capable of answering that question? It didn't seem like he was going to bite her. But what they were doing was dangerous. If they kept it up, it would certainly _lead_ to him biting her. Would he know when to stop? Would _she?_

He lowered his mouth to the pulse point on her neck and she felt his lips form a smile. "For now."

He brought her right arm up to wrap around the back of his neck, exposing more of her body to his exploring fingers which traversed her midriff up to the bottoms of her breasts and down to the top of her knickers. His fingers were everywhere and she gave a soft moan.

Her head was tilted to the side, and his lips skimmed the skin of her throat, kissing, nipping, sucking her skin into his mouth. She shuddered, feeling like putty in his strong embrace. She was nervous and slightly fearful. But she had a wand this time; she could defend herself and bind him if she needed to. She let the cup drop to the ground with a thud and slowly reached across her body for the wand in her right trouser pocket, trying not to excite Draco more than he already was.

_Slowly, slowly…_ She would feel better if it was in her hand.

"Draco," she said, trying to keep her voice even as his fingers probed the underside of her breast, tenderly cupping, gently squeezing, dragging down the confines of her bra. "How did you know about the cu… uuuuhhhh?" She moaned as he rolled her nipple in between his two fingers, pinching and pulling. She arched into his touch as much as she could against the strong forearm pinning her to his body.

"Eavesdropping," he said, speaking directly into her ear. She could feel her knickers dampening below.

"That's quite a complex bit of magic you have there: being able to discuss it right under everyone's noses."

His right arm lowered from her neck to make its way into her trousers, in between her legs.

"Impressive spellwork," his voice rumbled again against her ear and he peppered the length of exposed skin with kisses, licks, and little nips. She dug her nails into the back of his neck and felt him grin against her throat.

"Draco." Her left hand found the tip of her wand and she slowly worked to pull it out. His hand was creeping down, into her knickers, finding her curls, finding her folds.

"Mmmm?" he asked as he kneaded her breast and licked her throat. She gripped her wand tighter, and twirled it around to angle it back at him.

"How did you…" she gasped and arched her back at a particularly hard tug on her nipple, "know about this place?" His middle finger was sliding along her slit and she bucked her hips slightly. "Ohhhh," she sighed.

"Deductive reasoning," he answered huskily.

Her eyes snapped open as his hand left her breast to encircle the wrist of her hand that held her wand. At the same time, he rubbed the vein that he had previously drunk from back at his manor.

"Good idea," he whispered.

"Should I…" she asked in a shuddering voice as his finger teased her entrance. He hadn't bitten her, but she had to stop him before he did. When would that be? How would she know?

"Not yet," he said while rubbing himself against her arse. His hand slid lower until he was cupping her wet heat, and he pressed his fingers up, growling against her throat.

She trembled against him, wand poised at the ready, and his finger remained at her entrance, probing, sliding over her clit. She writhed and panted against him, and he nuzzled the nape of her neck.

"Draco," she groaned. "I don't know if…"

He dragged his teeth against her skin and brought her arm back so that her wand was pressed against him.

"Just a bit more," he growled.

_Gods._ He was sin. And she _did_ want more.

As if he could hear her thoughts, his middle finger stopped teasing her entrance and slid its way all the way in, curving upwards. His index finger joined and he chuckled as she whimpered against him. Slowly, _slowly_ he slid his fingers in and out of her, rubbing her clit with his thumb. Hermione bit her lip and let out another moan.

"Hermione," his voice rumbled in her ear as his fingers kept their torturously slow pace sliding in and out of her.

"Oh…" She felt his mouth pause in its decadent caressing of her neck, shoulder and throat.

"Hermione."

His mouth opened and his lips pressed into her flesh. She felt the points of his fangs, ever so delicately grazing her skin, back and forth. His fingers were slowly stroking, sliding, pressing, flicking, cupping, squeezing, and she moaned and writhed against his body.

"Want to taste you…" Draco's voice turned into a growl. "You smell… _riiiiipe._"

His fingers tensed, as if trying to hold her in place. Nothing but pure instinct galvanized her into action.

"_Incarcerous Argentum!_"

There was a flash of light as silver ropes wound across Draco's torso, restricting his upper arms and bringing him to his knees with a snarl. Her limbs went limp and her body felt cold as he fell away from her, and she watched as he struggled with the four silver stripes wrapping across his chest. She closed her trousers and adjusted her jumper with a trembling sigh. Her insides ached with the sudden emptiness. She wouldn't be getting much sleep tonight.

"Sorry," she whispered.

"S'Okay," he panted, baring his fangs to her. "You were right… I was about to…" He grunted in pain.

She swished her wand, ending the glamour. Just as suddenly, Harry, Tonks, Ron, Bill and Lupin appeared outside, flanking her protectively.

Ron grabbed her upper arm, drawing her gaze from Draco, "Are you okay? I didn't see what happened."

"Yes," she answered. "He didn't do anything."

"Yet," Harry said, finishing her sentence. She eyed him but didn't argue.

Ron saw the fallen scarf. With a growl of anger, he landed a vicious kick to Draco's stomach, who grunted and doubled over.

"Ron, no!" Hermione pulled him back, he was scowling. "He's saved my life. Remember? Twice now."

From his prone position on the ground, Draco snarled menacingly up at Ron.

"You call not killing you saving your life?" Ron retorted.

"Ronald, if you can't control yourself, go back inside. We have to take him to the Forbidden Forest; he'll kill people here in London if I release him here." She picked up the sack from the ground, put it under her arm, holstered her wand, and clasped Harry and Ron's hands. "Come on, we'll Side-Along to—"

She felt Draco's hand wrap around her ankle. With a jolt, they all fell to the ground, landing outside of the Forbidden Forest, to the exact spot where Draco had Apparated her before.

Ron retched and wiped his mouth. "Dammit, Hermione. Give a warning before you—"

"I didn't do it."

"Harry, you didn't wait for the rest."

"It wasn't me."

They all looked down at Draco, hissing in pain as the silver burnt through his clothes and into his skin. He scowled at Ron and Harry and then turned to Hermione. "You were touching. I didn't mean to take them, too."

There was a pop. Lupin, Tonks and Bill appeared roughly fifty feet away and came running towards them.

"Why didn't you wait?" Tonks said out of breath, arriving first.

"Draco Apparated us."

Everyone except Hermione, who had already witnessed the displays of Draco's power, looked incredulously down at him. He was clearly suffering from the bonds Hermione had restrained him with, but had Apparated himself and three others with little effort. Yet still, he made no move to get up from his kneeling position or to free himself.

Draco sniffed. "Werewolf," he growled.

Lupin narrowed his eyes. "Vampire," he said, looking at him warily. "If you're as powerful as Hermione says, why don't you just remove the bonds?"

Draco gritted his teeth and grunted. "The pain keeps me focused."

Lupin studied him, and then slowly nodded. "Yes… it would… wouldn't it?"

Hermione knelt down beside Draco and he looked up at her though his fringe, a small whimper emitted from his mouth.

"I could release you now," she offered, her voice rising in a question.

"No!" Lupin and Draco quickly answered at the same time.

Tentatively, she ran her hand through his hair and cupped his jaw; he lightly nuzzled her hand. She could feel everyone's eyes on her, but she didn't care.

"You sure?" she asked.

His teeth captured the pad of her thumb and he bit down lightly. The brief contact sent an electric jolt to her aching core. His silver eyes were filled with hunger as he stared into hers. "Yes."

"Draco," Lupin's voice took on an air of authority, "why did you come tonight?"

Draco motioned to Hermione. "She'll tell you," he then smirked, "or not."

Lupin glanced at Hermione and then back to Draco. "How did you find us?"

Draco shifted and snarled as the silver cut into his flesh.

"I've known where the Order's headquarters were for a long time now."

Harry raised his eyebrows. "Really?" he asked, expressing the surprise the rest of them felt.

Draco looked up at her. She nodded in encouragement, and he gave a resigned sigh, glancing at Harry. "Sirius Black was your godfather, was he not? You would have been the heir after Black was killed." Hermione saw Harry's eyes glimmer for a minute, and then harden.

"And?" Harry said, egging him on.

His voice took on an arrogant sneer. "A few years back, I came by Grimmauld Place one afternoon to see..." He shut his mouth, glanced at Hermione, and then back to Lupin. "I was curious. But I couldn't find the house. Number eleven, number thirteen, but no number twelve. I should have been able to see the house. I'm a wizard, and the Blacks are my relatives."

"And no one else figured this out?" Lupin continued, ignoring his tone.

"No. And I wasn't about to help them."

"Why are you helping us?" Harry interrupted.

Hermione stood up and squared her shoulders. She didn't want Draco to have to talk about his feelings for her in front of them. "That's enough. We've talked about this more times than I can count, and here we have the proof. Let's leave so he can go." She eyed the four silver stripes across his chest, and the exposed skin and muscle underneath. "He's clearly in pain."

Ron protested, "But how do we know he won't bring the Death Eaters back? He could have followed you after letting you go. We should get rid of him now."

Draco gave Ron a scathing look, although the effect was lessened by his moan of pain. "I'd like to see you try, Weasley."

"He won't bring anyone, Ron. He could have already done so had he wanted to. Let's go," Hermione said with a note of finality.

Harry looked at her, "Ron's got a point. What if he's lying? Maybe he didn't know about the location from years ago." Harry looked at his feet, took a steadying breath, and glanced down at Hermione. "That… and I don't think you're being objective," he said, his words came out in a rush.

Hermione felt her cheeks redden as her body temperature rose with her anger. "And _Ron_ is objective? _You're_ objective?"

"Then why come now? By himself?" Bill entered the exchange. "I believe Malfoy."

"As do I," said Lupin. "He brought Hermione back unharmed." At this, both Harry and Ron's eyes snapped to hers as Lupin continued, "and he's given us ample opportunity to kill him." Lupin eyed Draco thoughtfully. "I wonder if he couldn't overpower all of us right now and get away."

Draco smirked and Ron glared mutinously at Lupin.

Harry turned to Tonks. "What do you think?"

A snarl sounded from below. Draco turned to Hermione. "You were right, the silver works better than I thought it would. But I've had enough; this fucking hurts." He sneered at the rest before saying, "You should all leave. I'm not going to be held responsible for my actions once I'm free." He grinned maliciously at Ron.

Harry protested angrily, "Now wait a minute, we haven't—"

Draco just smiled. "On the count of three, Potter." His voice lilted upwards at each number. "One…"

"We're leaving. Now," Hermione said.

"Two….." Draco drew out the number for several seconds, clearly enjoying Harry and Ron's rage.

"Let's go, we'll talk more later," said Lupin.

Hermione glanced worriedly to Draco and he gave her a roguish wink. No, she was definitely not going to sleep well tonight.

Several loud cracks sounded in the air as they all Disapparated. All but one.

"You want to die, Weasley?" he taunted.

"Get out of your bindings! Now!"

Draco worked his arm out of his bindings. He extended two fingers in a rude gesture and raised his eyebrows innocently. "Did you want to taste her too?"

Ron's face turned purple. "I'll _kill_ you for what you did to her!" he ground out.

Draco smirked cheekily. "On second thought," he continued, sucking on his fingers with relish, "I don't think I want to share."

Ron snarled with rage and kicked Draco in the jaw.

He fell on his back then smiled menacingly, revealing his fangs.

"Three…"

The silver ropes dissolved and he lunged at Ron with a roar.

"_Lumos sol_!"

**Chapter end notes:**

I know, I'm evil.


	14. Chapter 6  Original ending

**Chapter 6 - Original ending**

They landed in a dark back alley several blocks away from the headquarters, too numerous to Apparate directly onto the steps.

"Alright," Harry said checking the street. "We can go back. But let's do it two at time. Tonks, Bill, you two go first."

They nodded and walked back. Harry peered around the corner, watching them. "Just a few minutes more… Ron? You go with Hermione."

Behind him, he heard a quick movement and whirled around. Hermione was craning her neck wildly and turning in circles.

"What are you doing?"

"That unbelievably stupid – Argh!" She let out a frustrated shriek and Disapparated.

Ooooooooooo

To her horror, Hermione arrived to see Ron pale, bloody, and lying on the ground. A chunk of flesh was missing from the nape of his neck, and his wand arm appeared to be broken.

"No, no, no, no," she muttered, feeling for a pulse and trying to staunch the blood flow.

He was alive.

She closed her eyes in relief, and started chanting to close the wound. Taking in her surroundings with a cursory glance, she noticed that there was no sign of Draco, nor a corpse. Vampires disappeared in a pile of ash. She couldn't imagine Draco leaving Ron alive with that gaping wound. He would have drained him dry if he were alive and able. Ron must have killed him.

Harry and Lupin reappeared with a pop. Lupin looked aghast.

"Alive?" Harry croaked.

She nodded without stopping her chanting and felt the beginnings of hot tears pool in her eyes. They bent over Ron and, once finding her rhythm, pointed their wands at his wound and joined in. They had arrived in time; Ron was going to be fine. She closed her eyes, and the tears fell.

Oooooooooo

Hermione and Harry sat by Ron's bedside, looking down at him. Some of the color had returned to his face, but it would take another day or so for him to completely heal and regain his strength. Madam Pomfrey had stopped by earlier and mended his arm with little difficulty.

Harry looked up at Hermione and said, "Having a werewolf in the Order has its uses, eh? We could all cure bite wounds in our sleep."

Hermione gave a mirthless chuckle and held Ron's hand in hers. She felt sick with worry. She hadn't gotten a chance to go back to the Forbidden Forest and check for a pile of ash, but she was fairly certain that Ron had killed Draco. Maybe there was a chance…

She bit her lip to hold back her tears, but it wasn't working.

"Hermione," Harry said tentatively and she raised her head to meet his gaze. He looked like he was trying to decide how to phrase his thoughts and then finally asked her, "When did this start… with Malfoy?"

Hermione felt the blood rush to her face. She had hoped that she wouldn't have to talk about Draco. She got up to leave, but Harry pressed on. "Ron's been worse than this and I have yet to see you shed a tear for him."

Hermione studied Harry. He didn't seem angry or betrayed as she might have expected. She sat back down and sighed.

"I… I don't know. Sixth year? Once we actually got an opportunity to talk to each other alone, we… connected."

"Connected?" Harry asked skeptically. "I'm surprised that he talked to you at all, bigot that he was."

She wiped the tears from her eyes with the palm of her hand and said, "I think he had begun to question his views long before."

"What makes you think that?"

"Well," she sniffed, "there was that time at the World Cup, and I missed it too. I suppose you would have to know what to look for. It's only when I thought about it in retrospect…"

"What's that?"

"Do you remember when Draco's father and a few others suspended those Muggles in the air?"

"Of course, and then the git came to lord it over us - the fact that they were out to get you because you're Muggle-born."

"Exactly."

Oooooooo

_Hermione illuminated her wand and directed its narrow beam across the path. Ron was lying sprawled on the ground._

_"Tripped over a tree root," he said angrily, getting to his feet again._

_"Well, with feet that size, hard not to," said a drawling voice from behind them._

_Harry, Ron and Hermione turned sharply. Draco Malfoy was standing alone nearby, leaning against a tree, looking utterly relaxed. His arms folded, he seemed to have been watching the scene at the campsite through a gap in the trees._

_"Go bugger your cousin, you inbred prat!"_

_"Language, Weasley," said Malfoy, his pale eyes glittering. "Hadn't you better be hurrying along now? You wouldn't like _her _spotted, would you?"_

_He nodded at Hermione, and at the same moment, a blast like a bomb sounded from the campsite, and a flash of green light momentarily lit up the trees around them._

_"What's that supposed to mean?" said Hermione defiantly. She didn't like the look in his eyes. It wasn't threatening, but it was… She couldn't name what it was and her inability to indentify it unnerved her._

_"Granger, they're after _Muggles_," said Malfoy. "D'you want to be showing off your knickers in midair? Because if you do, hang around… they're moving this way and it would give us all a laugh."_

_"Hermione's a witch," Harry snarled._

_"Have it your own way, Potter," said Malfoy, grinning maliciously. "If you think they can't spot a Mudblood, stay where you are."_

_"You watch your mouth!" shouted Ron._

_"Never mind, Ron," said Hermione quickly, seizing Ron's arm to restrain him as he took a step toward Malfoy. He was baiting them on purpose, and yet… she couldn't deny that he was giving them sound advice. They heard a bang from the other side of the trees that was louder than anything else. Several people nearby screamed. Malfoy chuckled softly._

_"Scare easily, don't they?" he said lazily. "I suppose your daddy told you all to hide? What's he up to? Trying to rescue the Muggles?"_

_"Where're _your_ parents?" Harry asked, his temper rising. "Out there wearing masks, are they?"_

_Malfoy turned his face to Harry, still smiling._

_"Well… if they were, I wouldn't be likely to tell you, would I, Potter?"_

_"Oh come on," said Hermione, with a disgusted look at Malfoy, "let's go and find the others."_

_"Keep that big bushy head down, Granger," sneered Malfoy._

_"Come _on_," Hermione repeated, and she pulled Harry and Ron up the path again. She stared back at Draco and frowned. There it was again. He was giving her advice._

_"I'll bet you anything his dad _is _one of that masked lot!" said Ron hotly._

_"Well, with any luck, the Ministry will catch him!" said Hermione fervently. Looking around to find that they had lost everyone else, she forgot her line of thought regarding Malfoy. "Oh, I can't believe this. Where have the others got to?"_

_Fred, George and Ginny were nowhere to be seen, though the path was packed with plenty of other people, all looking nervously over their shoulders toward the commotion back at the campsite._

oooooooo

"Three times, Harry."

"What? That he insulted you?"

"No," she said with an exasperated sigh. "Three times that he tried to warn us. To make us understand that I would be a target and should be hidden. His father already knew that I was Muggle-born. Why else would Draco warn us if his views weren't already changed? Or changing?"

Harry opened his mouth as if to reply, and then closed it.

"And then there was Moaning Myrtle."

"What?" Harry asked, looking annoyed at the growing amount of evidence.

"He confided in her a lot during sixth year. Remember? And she was Muggle-born."

"But then why keep calling you 'Mudblood' all these years?"

"Now you're being purposely thick!" she retorted angrily. "Just look at the position he was in!"

He looked down in thought and admitted reluctantly, "Yeah. I guess you're right."

Hermione stared blankly at Ron for a few minutes and then said, "He had an incredible strength of character."

Harry's voice took on an irritated tone. "Have you forgotten school completely? He was a whining, spoiled bully."

"_Was_," Hermione argued. "And then life got complicated. He changed."

Harry gritted his teeth. "But how can you still feel that way… after this?" He gestured to Ron's unconscious body.

"You hypocrite!" she hissed, furiously wiping away at angry tears. "Ron stayed behind to kill him! And I… I still love Ron, don't I?"

Harry looked to the side, his jaw jutting out.

Several tense minutes passed by in silence with the only sound being Hermione's occasional sniffling. Harry shifted in his seat, and then cleared his throat before speaking.

"So why did he come?"

Hermione scoffed at him. "Have you suddenly realized there are more important things to discuss than your schoolyard pissing contests?"

She reached down, picked up the sack Draco had given her, and lobbed it over Ron's body. Harry caught it effortlessly.

Glaring at her but saying nothing, he looked inside. For a moment he was silent, and then his eyes slowly widened in shock. "Is that what I think it is?"

"Yes."

"He destroyed it?"

"Yes."

Harry's voice rose. "By _himself_?"

"I think so."

"Merlin's _beard_!" His voice softened, taking on a tone of awe. He took the cup out of the sack and held it up, turning it around and inspecting the damage. "If he's so powerful, why didn't the Death Eaters use him?"

"He didn't want to be used. I told you, he has… he _had _no loyalty to them or their cause."

"So why didn't he join us?"

"He was worried about his parents; we've been over this Harry."

"But they've been dead a few months now. Why didn't he come? He knew you were waiting for him."

"Being a vampire... well, that complicated things." She looked up and choked back a sob. "I was surprised that he came at all tonight. I didn't expect to ever see him again."

Tears filled her eyes and Harry looked away, not wanting to stare.

"I'm... I'm sorry," he said quietly.

She nodded gratefully, and the two sat looking at Ron's sleeping form.

After a few minutes she added, "Harry, he… he said that he thought the last is Nagini."

Harry was pulled from his reverie. "So he thinks so, too? You didn't agree with Dumbledore."

"No, I didn't. But Draco has been around the both of them for the past few years, so he would know. I just didn't think that a living being would make a good Horcrux. Nagini will eventually die."

"Maybe it would still be active in her corpse."

She shook her head. "No, he made a _living being_ a Horcrux. When it dies, the Horcrux will die. It was rather foolish of him." She lay back in her chair exhausted. "She's the last one, Harry. And then we can kill _him_."

"If we're smart, we'll do both at the same time."

"That's the only way we can do it."

Oooooo

Hermione and Harry woke up as Ron began to stir.

"Hey," Harry said and smiled at him. "How are you doing?"

Ron rubbed his eyes and looked around. "Not bad. Hungry though."

"Did you kill him?"

Ron turned to see Hermione's hostile expression. He raised his voice an octave to imitate hers. "How are you feeling, Ron?" His tenor returned to normal, but became laced with anger. "Oh, I'm fine, thanks for asking. I just got a bite taken out of me by a blood sucking _ferret_. How have you been?"

She gritted her teeth in an attempt to stay the angry tears that threatened to spill from her eyes. Leaning forward, she repeated her question. Each word trembled with her rage and sorrow.

"Did. You. _Kill. _Him."

"Isn't it _me_ you should be worried about? _He_ tried to kill _me_."

"And what did you stay behind for?" Hermione spat at him. "A game of Exploding Snap?"

Ron scowled at her. "Maybe now he'll stay away. We're better off without his ferrety arse stalking you. He's _done _something to you. You're not in your right mind."

She sighed in relief and sagged back into her chair. "So he's alive."

"Crispy, but alive," he answered reluctantly. "He was too fast. And if he comes back, I'll do it again."

Hermione pressed her palms to her forehead, counted to ten, and then exhaled loudly. It didn't help. Her patience had run out; this whole ordeal was a complete waste of time. Slowly lowering her hands, she glared at Ron. She could feel the anger radiating out of her and he winced at whatever he saw in her expression.

Her voice came out more threatening than she had originally intended but she did nothing to temper the outpouring of her rage. "You're a _fucking idiot_, Ronald Weasley."

He opened his mouth to protest, but closed it after Harry gave a quick shake of his head.

"You have this uncanny ability to reduce your intelligence to that of a _Blast-Ended Skrewt _whenever you're worried about the size of your dick!"

His face reddened and her voice dropped lower and became even more menacing.

"Don't you _understand_? He would have been an ally! And an incredible weapon if wielded correctly. He's more powerful than Voldemort and his Death Eaters combined and _he came to help us destroy him!_"

She paused until it appeared he had formulated a response. When he opened his mouth to reply, she cut him off, raising the volume of her voice. "But now you've gone and bollixed it up because you're still upset that he had a Nimbus 2000 when all you had was a Cleanswop!"

"Cleansweep," Harry muttered under his breath.

"Whatever!" she yelled, dismissing him with a wave of her hand. Harry sat back, not daring to interrupt again. From the look on her face, Ron might soon have yet another bite that would need healing.

Ron's expression turned livid. "What… What absolute tripe! I was only protecting y—umph! What the-!"

He looked down at the object she had thrown at his stomach. The angry expression on Ron's face fell as he looked dumbly down at the Hufflepuff Cup.

"Fuck me! You guys went to Gringotts? How long was I out?"

Hermione crossed her arms and answered curtly. "_You_ were out for a day and a half. _Draco _gave me the cup."

Ron opened his mouth like he was going to say something, shut it, and then opened it again. "Wait, but - how did he know?"

Hermione raised her eyebrows and leaned forward. "And," she continued without answering his question, "he _also _thinks that Nagini is the final one."

Ron slowly raised the cup, scrutinizing it skeptically. "Are you _sure _that this is really…?"

She sat back. "Yes, Ron, it's the real thing. We checked."

"And he destroyed it?"

"Yes."

"By _himself?"_Ron asked, gawking at the cup.

Hermione looked at Harry and sighed.

Ron poked at it, surprised when the blackened metal that looked so much like crumpled paper didn't give like paper would.

"Bl-o-o-dy hell."

Ooooooooo

Bill, Hermione, Lupin, Tonks, Ron and Harry were huddled over the attack plans for the fortress and the sketchy blueprint that they acquired and added to over the years. They were discussing what they had hoped would be the final battle every day now for the past week.

After a lull in the conversation, Lupin looked at Hermione, sighed and said, "You've got some brilliant ideas, but it doesn't change the fact that we're outnumbered three to one. Maybe even four to one if we catch him with the entirety of his force."

Hermione gazed at him. With sagging shoulders she said, "And we're attacking a fortress. The advantage goes to the defending position no matter how you look at it. I know."

"What if we made a decoy, a second attack somewhere else to draw most of them out?" Ron suggested.

"It had better be a _good _decoy," Harry said. "Those odds are pretty steep. It would take quite a bit of subterfuge to convince them it was real and keep them there long enough to finish off Voldemort."

Bill gave Ron a quelling look. "And those involved in the decoy would essentially be on a suicide mission. Leave the planning to Hermione."

Ron scowled.

Hermione rubbed her temples and let her hands drop to the table. She had hoped that it wouldn't come to this and that they really would come up with a battle plan to overcome all the obstacles. Then she wouldn't have to suggest the alternative that had been dancing around in the back of her head.

"Maybe we're going about this the wrong way," she said slowly.

"How so?" Tonks asked.

"Well, we always assumed that once we finished the mission, we could go attack Voldemort and kill him. End this all. But that was _years _ago. His army is much larger than it was before. And while we've grown too, we still don't have the manpower that he does."

"Each one of the Order is worth at least four of his brainwashed idiots," Ron piped up defensively.

Bill gave him a half grin and ruffled his hair. "That's the spirit. You're better at cheerleading."

Ron cursed under his breath and swatted Bill's hand away.

Hermione took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. "Well, there _is_another option."

Sometimes, Hermione wished that she wasn't such a good strategist. Ultimately, she felt responsible for both the victories and defeats that they incurred. Even worse, she was sometimes in a position to decide who lived and who died, who would be in which wave, who would attack from which flank and who would participate in which raid. She knew if the chances of survival were better in one group than another.

Sometimes, even the best laid plans resulted in death. Unforeseen difficulties, people in the wrong place at the wrong time, like when…

"Draw him out?" Tonks finished for her. She must have been thinking along the same lines.

She nodded, wordlessly.

"How?" Harry said.

She sighed, looked at Harry, and hoped he wouldn't hate her. His inquisitive expression fell to one of resignation.

"Bait," he said, since she couldn't quite get the word off the tip of her tongue. "You want me to be the bait."

"Yes," she said quietly.

"But surely we could…" Tonks protested.

"Think about it," Hermione explained. "We pick the time," she said as she began ticking off the advantages on her fingers, feeling very Machiavellian. "We pick the battlefield. We come prepared. We have the element of surprise. They come, hoping to do Harry in, or kidnap him — depending on how we set it up. They won't expect a full-fledged battle. Every advantage goes to us."

No one could argue with her. She stole a quick glance at Harry. He was looking at the table, avoiding her gaze.

"I'll do it," he said tonelessly.

"Harry," Tonks tried to placate him.

"No," Harry continued. "She's right. And what difference does it make? It's got to be me and him anyway."

He looked up at her and gave her a small smile. "It's okay. And… I'm glad we have you to think of these things."

She felt the coldness in her body warm a little from his words.

"If Harry's bait," Ron said, "then I am, too."

Harry nodded at him gratefully.

"Me too," Hermione said quietly. Harry gave her a small smile in response.

"Harry," Lupin said. "We're _all _going to be with you that night. Now," he said, waving his wand causing all of the maps, plans and notes that were on the table to whisk themselves away to a drawer in the kitchen. Everyone's eyes followed the papers. "Before we commit to anything, let's brainstorm a bit. I think our first question is - where do we want to do this?"

"The Gaunts' old house," Hermione replied.

Harry looked at her sharply. "You've already sussed this out."

She looked down at the table guiltily. "I started thinking about it two days ago. I didn't think we'd be able to beat the odds either."

"Well?" Tonks prodded her. "Who are the Gaunts?"

Hermione looked at Harry out of the corner of her eye and saw him nod.

"Voldemort's family." That answer got a few raised eyebrows from around the table. "He had hidden something there which was connected to our mission. If we let it be known that Harry, Ron and I are staking out the area, he'll come. And he'll come with few others, if anyone at all, because he won't want anybody to know about the… our mission. We'll ambush him."

She saw Harry smile appreciatively at her intellect and she continued, "The house is relatively isolated, the nearest residence being the Riddle estate which has been abandoned for quite some time. We can prepare the land, make the borders of anti-apparition wards, which will be erected the moment he arrives…"

She saw nods of agreement, but Ron was staring thoughtfully into space.

"What are you thinking, Ron?" He managed to hide it well, but she knew that Ron had his moments of brilliance, even if no one else did.

He lowered his eyes to hers. "He has to bring Nagini in order for this to work."

Hermione opened her mouth in surprise.

"Damn," she muttered. "I didn't think of that."

"A shame Padma's turned traitor. It would be nice to have someone on the inside to take out the snake," Harry said, digging his nail into a scratch in the table.

"There will never be another Severus Snape," Lupin commented.

Suddenly, Lupin tensed, sniffed the air and looked to Bill who also seemed on edge. Bill nodded.

"What?" Harry asked.

Bill and Lupin turned to the puzzled and curious expressions on everyone's faces. Lupin met Hermione's eyes and said, "It appears that our vampire friend has returned."


End file.
